On Thursday, 15 November 2018 the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) held a roundtable on the Middle East Institute recent paper entitled “The Fatemiyoun Division: Afghan Fighters in the Syrian Civil War”. Distinguished politicians, academics, civil society members and media representatives attended the event. The purpose of the program and paper was to discuss Fatemiyoun origin story, its rising profile, recruitment method, return of its fighter to Afghanistan and its outlook.

At the beginning of the programme, Mr. Ahmad Shoja, Editor of the Georgetown Public Policy Review and who has conducted research on Fatemiyoun, said that the Fatemiyoun division is consisted of Afghans that have been sent to Syria by Sepa Pasdaran of Iran. He said, the number of this division is 50 thousand but now it is decreasing. He added, at the begin Sepa Pasdaran forces fought in Syria. Then Fatemiyoun joined the battlefield. The Russian troops provided air covering for Fatemiyoun. Mr. Shja said, the main reason for joining to Fatemiyoun division is money and also some adventurous young people joined this group without any reason.

The second speaker was Mr. Aryan Sharifi, AISS fellow researcher and the Former Head of Threat Assessment, National Security Council of Afghanistan. He said that Fatemiyoun issue has been consistently under consideration by the National Security Council since 2015. Mr. Sharifi, reminded the Fatemiyoun division to pose three kinds of threat to Afghanistan: First, from Human Security perspective: between 12- 14 thousands of Afghans were fighting in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen and most of them were killed during the war. The second threat is undermining of Afghanistan diplomatic relationship with the countries where the fighters migrate. The third threat is the ideological dimension of these issues. These fighters are ideological radical and it can cause sectarian violence in Afghanistan.

The last speaker was Mr. Ajmal Bluchzadah, Mehwar-e Mardom-e Afghanistan, highlighting the method of recruiting fighters for the Fatemiyoun. He stated that Iran has recruited fighters from Afghanistan through pilgrimage and tourist agencies. Iran believes that the United States of America and many other countries are supporting ISIS, therefore it has established Fatemiyoun Division by encouraging and recruiting Afghans to fight against ISIS. Iran believes that it's right to use Afghans as fighters as neighbor countries consider Afghanistan as treat. Mr. Baluchzada added that it's common to talk and discuss Pakistan's strategic depth in Afghanistan but we have never discussed Iran in the west and Russia in the North and their strategic depth in Afghanistan. The event ended with the Q&A session.

Click on the link below to download the full report in Farsi and English:

http://aiss.af/assets/aiss_publication/The_Fatemiyoun_Division_Afghan_Fighters_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War_(Farsi).pdf

http://aiss.af/assets/aiss_publication/The_Fatemiyoun_Division_Afghan_Fighters_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War_(English).pdf