“The majority left in first and in the second year [of the war in Syria]. And after that — no more people are leaving [to join Daesh]. Now, when you start talk to people [on the issue] … they say: we saw their atrocities, that they cut off heads in the name of Allah and, secondly, we saw another picture … That there are internal squabbles, which are not linked to religion. In other words, one group is trying to overthrow the government, while hiding behind religion,” Yevkurov said.
He added that boosting security measures in Europe and Turkey following terror attacks also played a role in the decreasing number of people recruited by Daesh.
Yevkurov pointed out that when the Syrian war erupted in 2011, many young people left for Syria because of propagandist Daesh videos disseminated via social networks and portraying the Syrian government as a regime that killed Muslim women, children and old people.
“That is why many people thought they had a duty to go there in order to protect their religion,” the republic's head said.
According to Yevkurov, the republic's as well as federal authorities are carrying out work aimed at preventing people from leaving to join Daesh and called on civic organizations to join this work.
He said that militants recruited by foreign terrorist organizations should deprived of Russian citizenship.
"There are Russian laws, prohibiting membership of international terrorist organizations… In such cases, I think that deprivation of citizenship could be applied," Yevkurov said.
Ingushetia's leader stressed that if a person realized that he or she may not be able to return to homeland, he or she would think twice before traveling to join terrorists abroad.
Yevkurov added that he would not initiate the amendments to the Russian constitution but stressed that changing situation in the world might act as an impetus to legal changes.
