 Okay, good afternoon everyone. My name is Teuta Avdemetai and I'm a researcher and policy advisor based in Kosovo I've been researching violent extremism in the Vester Balkans for over four years alongside with Extremist propaganda as well as reintegration programs Before I go on with my presentation. I would like to take a minute to just For us to think you know when you think about drivers of violent extremism What are some of the main three factors that come to mind? So usually Whenever I ask this question to an audience Usually the remaining response that I get include poor economic conditions So a search for a sense of belonging or a desire to belong to a greater cause as well as marginalization and more often than not What is missing may be trauma so as my presentation day gives it away today I'm gonna talk about Trauma and violent extremism and I'm gonna share some of my insights Drawing on my experience interviewing Family members of foreign fighters as well as women returnees in Kosovo from the foreign conflict zones in Syria and Iraq We've seen that in the recent years the field of violent extremism studies has been growing. However We also noticed that non ideological factors such as trauma Have received relatively less attention when we try to explain these kinds of phenomena So at the outset, I think we should ask the question. What is trauma? How well do we understand it and how well are we able to identify it? So in general terms Trauma is defined as an emotionally scarring experience leaving someone with a deep sense of helplessness But more specifically as the American Psychiatric Association defines it trauma Refers to as an exposure to actual or threatened death serious injury or sexual violence Whether directly experiencing it witnessing it in person as it occurs to someone else Hearing that it has happened to a close family family member that you know or a friend or just Hearing about it like all those details repeatedly as is the case of first responders and When we look at these elements that constitute trauma We also know that one of the one of the context in which we find these We found trauma to be quite prevalent and present as a at a great scale is during conflicts and during wars And this brings me to Kosovo. So the country where I'm from 20 years ago Experienced a terrible conflict. So the conflict left around 13,000 people killed an estimated number of 20,000 women and men who were raped Have the country's population or about one million people fleeing as refugees and Around 1600 people still missing According to the World Health Organization So witnessing violence and cruelty is often associated with a range of psychological and behavioral problems including anxiety depression suicidal behavior as well as PTSD and Recently there has been there have been studies in Kosovo that show that even several years after the war ended Rates of PTSD are still quite high among the civilian population Who was exposed to trauma among the former refugees as well as the war veterans? And this brings us to the to the next question So why is this an issue and why should be considered this when we talk about PvE and CVE research? We know now that violent extremism is a very it's a very complex process. It's non-linear It's hard to predict and there it's manifested through a broad spectrum. However, in order for us to understand The the various factors that influence that it's it's important to broaden the range of these factors and again drawing in my Experience conducted these interviews with these groups of individuals. I believe that in the case of Kosovo especially Trauma may be one of those Studies factors that could help us understand the radicalization process of foreign fighters So just to put things into perspective From Kosovo there are around 255 foreign fighters who traveled from Kosovo to Syria and Most of them went through Turkey. They took a very lengthy road and through various means of transport Although the map is not supposed to illustrate the exact routes. It just It's meant to illustrate the distance between these two countries And so again going back to why we should be considered trauma when we can when we think of PvE and CVE research I Did not think of trauma as one of those more relevant factors going into this research However, the more the interviews kept going on. I noticed that trauma was becoming a recurring theme So vivid recollections of the war Memories of the war start to become a pattern For instance in one of in one case of a foreign fighter a quite prominent one I know I learned that while he was just a child He was he was exposed to extreme violence He witnessed as his sibling was heavily beaten as well as his mother was being tortured In another in another in another case in the case of one of the first ever foreign fighters from Kosovo Just looking at one of the videos that he published in 2010. He talks about An Islam under threat the narrative that we see being propagated many times later on but what's interesting to see is that during his video during his Remarks, he talks about him. He makes many References to the war he makes constantly comparisons between the war in Kosovo and the conflict in Syria and He talks about again a brother's being tortured and sisters being raped and If we if you look at the background of this specific foreign fighter You'll notice that the place that we that he comes from has been one of those Regions that was most affected by conflict and rape as a tool of war was quite widespread So in spite of this cases in spite of you know us understanding this bits and pieces from different cases There has been no serious effort Until now to fully explore this link so this leaves us With an knowledge gap and there is no study that makes This Evaluation, you know whether there is the link between trauma and radicalization In Kosovo, I say Kosovo, but this can be also applicable in other similar contexts as as well as beyond and This again leaves us with many questions So first of all does trauma play a role in the radical radicalization process? If so to what extent and I think this is the overarching question just to help us string think through this issue Then how do foreign fighters differ from the general population in the way they internalize or externalized trauma? so again, if the General population or have the country's population was in some in one way or another exposed to trauma What makes this individual so different? some studies on PTSD on those who try to determine PTSD rates seem to suggest that Having strong social support system may be one of those factors, but again, this was not done in relation to foreign fighters This was done just in general The next question is how does previous were related trauma influence their susceptibility to extremist propaganda? So how do these individual? React when they when they hear these Narratives of the liberator and the oppressor how does this? You know resonate with them does it resonate with them differently? How is the foreign fighter with war-related trauma different from a foreign fighter who has not experienced conflict previously? so What is the difference between a foreign fighter from the UK with a foreign fighter from Kosovo in this case and Even just as important how to do we account for war-related trauma in relation to other traumatic events? so if we if we take War-related trauma as a proxy in a way because we know that if you if you experience conflict You are likely to be exposed to trauma, but we cannot Exclude other traumatic events that may influence another throughout their lifetime So this is also something that we need to consider But in order for us to think through this question. I do believe that it's important to have To have more research to look more into in-depth into these questions to explore the link between trauma and radicalization input and especially in post-conflict countries as Well, so if we if we determine or if it's if trauma is indeed one of those factors That is relevant then it's going to have Important implications especially for this in this engagement and reintegration programs so as countries are becoming more proactive in In bringing back their citizens from the foreign conflict zones in Syria and Iraq I think it's important for us to explore this more in-depth So not only previous war-related trauma, but even with these With these new population for example children who are growing up in Syria and Iraq So how does trauma factor in into this and I think we should we should along with this other range of factors We should be paying Greater attention to this we should focus on this and take this seriously And I believe that if we as researchers or as policy makers Don't focus on this so the question become are we going to be able to break the cycle?