Russian court jails an Armenian due to IS participation

The Russian court jailed an Armenian militant for joining to IS.

Vazgen Zargarian, an Armenian resident of Kazakhstan, is sentenced by the North Caucasus Regional Military Court in Rostov-on-Don because of his attempts to join the IS in Syria.

He was previously arrested in 2015 while he was trying to go Syria, RFERL reports.

Religious extremism and terrorism are becoming the top agenda of Central Asian countries. New incidents happen every day such as Zargarian case.

Zhanybek Kaparov, the Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, stated that extremist groups from Afghanistan may influence the region, TASS reports.

He talked at the 5th Moscow International Security Conference on April 27.

“We can assume that since the beginning of spring and summer the situation in the designated region would be unfolding under the following scenario. Combatants will make real attempts to seize Afghanistan’s northern regions. The Afghan national army and police would carry out a sweeping operation to clear the northern regions and this could lead to infiltration of militants into the territories of neighboring states.”

According to the same report, Deputy Defense Minister of Tajikistan Abdulgoshim Gulumzoda and head of the foreign affairs committee of Russian Federation Council’s Konstantin Kosachev took part in the discussion about security in Central Asia.

Along with other leaders, the leader if Uzbekistan, Islam Kerimov who paid an official visit to Moscow on April 26, had said that the instability in the region would negatively affect other neighboring countries and noted that extremism is the biggest threat.