Among the reasons of terrorism in Europe are mistakes made by the world community in the beginning of a Syrian crisis, which could have been regulated in the bun.

Paris happened to be in the mid of a new wave of terrorist attacks.

Before France had time to recover from the January terrorist attack, when editor’s office of a satirist paper Charlie Hebdo was shot and hostages in kosher shop at the suburbs of Paris were taken, on November 13 in Paris 129 people were killed and 350 are injured in result of a series of attacks. The most terrible is that from the seven identified terrorists involved in the massacre on November 13 three are citizens of France.

French authorities introduced the state of emergency in the country and closed the borders.

Why did France happen to be in the epicenter of a new wave of terrorism? What will be its answer to the bloodshed? How will activation of terrorism affect Schengen zone?

Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus” answered the questions of the EuroBelarus Information Service.

— On November 13 in Paris a series of terroristic attacks happened, in result of which 129 men died; 350 more are injured. Why did it become possible? Is Parisian massacre the consequence of France’s participation in the Syrian conflict or the result of EU’s open borders?

— There are too many reasons for this tragedy. It would be foolish to limit ourselves by naming only one — closest reason — like vengeance upon France for its participation in the military conflict.

If we consider terroristic attack in Paris in the context of global terrorism that has been going on for several decades now (while escalation of terrorism is growing in the world), then we’ll have to address the whole complex of reasons that lead to terrorism. Terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, in Moscow in Nord-Ost, in Spain, in Paris, attacks in London that have been prevented — all these events can be united by the word “war”. Non-announced and tough war against an anonymous enemy is going on. Terror in the modern world, most likely, doesn’t have a united control center, as contrasted to bin Laden or al-Qaeda that we used to name the centers of terrorism. It is a state of mind of some part of world population. Terrorism is breaking out now here, now there — it should be treated as one of the most complicated phenomena that threaten the stability of the modern world.

— First attack in Paris happened in January, on November 13th — a second one. Why Paris?

— We should remember that today attacks are happening in different parts of the world. Looking for reasons of developments in Paris, Israel or of what has almost become a routine in Iraq means going away from the real reasons and real war on terrorism. We need to look to the root and try to understand the origins of terrorism. To prove terrorists guilty is one thing, but try to resist the terrorism as the world phenomenon is an absolutely different one. Understanding of concrete reasons and the guilty in the Paris attack of November 13th doesn’t mean cancelling the need to fight terrorism around the world. For that united efforts of all countries and civil societies of these countries as well as big changes in the world order are needed.

— How will the inflow of Arab migrants affect the state of terrorism?

— Search for reasons of today’s attacks in the current migration politics of the modern Europe — is an attempt to withdraw from real reasons of terrorism. Terrorists can use and will certainly use migration flows — both legal and illegal, which are used by thousands of people that move to Europe. Of course, there might be terrorists among them. But the reason of terrorism doesn’t lie in migration flows, and it were not migrants themselves, who prepared terroristic attacks — it is absolutely impossible to blame all attacks on migrants. The current migration wave in the modern Europe and terrorism have one and the same reason, but they are the phenomena of absolutely different order. It is only that the channels via which suicide bombers and organizers of attacks can reach Europe.

However, there are three French citizens among the identified terrorists. If they are French citizens it means that they do not come from the flow of migrants, but are already adopted representatives of migrant generation in France. People, who were born and have grown up in Europe become terrorists. However, the main seat of terrorism and major attacks are made in the East, splashing out to Europe and the US. The danger doesn’t become less from that.

We need to understand that the fight on terrorism presupposes extermination of the reasons that lead to terrorism. If we recall Syria we’ll have to admit that one of the reasons of terrorism in Europe are the mistakes of the world community made in the beginning of the Syrian crisis, which, probably, could have been regulated in the bun. All the more that by that time the “Arab Spring” has already swept across [in North Africa and the Middle East — EuroBelarus] and Syria could have become the final act of the “Arab Spring”. The EU, NATO, and the US should have occupied quite clear stance on the Syrian conflict and don’t allow development of opposition that used to be quite civilized in the beginning. People stood up against Asad’s regime; but after the opposition and the rebels didn’t get enough support from Europe, the US, and the civilized world, the nature of the opposition changed — today it is a terrorist community that was formed in the region, centers of which are Syria and Iraq.

— How will Europe respond to the latest wave of attacks? Will it resolve the issue of closing the borders?

— I think that the borders won’t be closed completely. Naturally, border, migration control will be toughened; check-ups in airports, border checkpoints, and crossings will be enhanced, which will seriously restrict rights and freedoms both of the EU citizens and those, who travel to the EU for permanent or working migration or looking for asylum, business, or just travelling. Toughening of migration politics will, first of all, affect civilian residents.

But it won’t solve the problem; because supplies of weapon, explosives, and training of terrorists can just as well go on in Paris. Terrorism is an international phenomenon; that’s why terrorists travel round the world so easily, avoiding any control.

Of course, Europe will respond. But will it think about changing mechanisms of principles of multiculturalism, adaptation, and accommodation of refugees and migrants and their accepting the norms of civilized Europe. We should aim at that, since compactly living migrant groups do not integrate into the European community, and it is in these groups that seats of terrorism might appear — if not directly realized attacks then at least training of young people to become terrorists. Many terrorists graduated from European universities, many are born in migrants’ families in Europe, still getting European education. Deep roots of terrorism lie in the education system and integration of other cultures, cultural communities to the European civilization.

— How will attacks affect Schengen zone?

— It will be the heads of state and foreign ministers, who signed Schengen agreement, who will decide on the fate of the Schengen zone. It’s hard for me to say, which decision will they make, but it will hardly affect the rules for getting Schengen visas in the majority of countries. Perhaps, separate countries will fall under special control, but it would be not very sensible to change Schengen agreement for all countries, especially for those, from which terrorist threat doesn’t proceed.