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AJ Naddaff on 'The Europeans': Talking About Kosovo

August 30, 2019 | The Europeans Podcast
Seated at a cafe next to the dilapidated Grand Hotel in Pristina, Fitim Lladrovci, 28, is one of the only former Kosovar Islamic State fighters released from a three-year prison sentence and free to roam the streets. Image by AJ Naddaff. Kosovo, 2018.

Seated at a cafe next to the dilapidated Grand Hotel in Pristina, Fitim Lladrovci, 28, is one of the only former Kosovar Islamic State fighters released from a three-year prison sentence and free to roam the streets. Image by AJ Naddaff. Kosovo, 2018.

Pulitzer Center grantee AJ Naddaff speaks with The Europeans podcast producers about his journey into Kosovo and the country's unprecedented attempt to repatriate its citizens that left to join ISIS.

Listen to the full podcast here. Naddaff's segment begins at 10:10.

In the interview, Naddaff talks about the two months he spent in Kosovo doing field research on the European country that was accused of having sent the greatest percentage per capita of people into Syria to fight for ISIS. Naddaff soon found out there was more to the story, and that this small country in Southern Europe was actually doing something no other Western country had tried to do before.