On a different kind of romanticism – Özlem Gezer, Sarah Klosterkamp and Timofey Neshitov in Der Spiegel:

‘Ismail, his father says, didn’t stop drinking out of a bottle until he was nine.
He holds a picture of his two sons from those childhood days, posed in front of a red backdrop. Emre, the tall one, is on the left. Ismail, the little one, is on the right.
The boys were still children he says, when their mother tucked them into bed one night, turned off her mobile phone and flew off with the man she was having an affair with for a week of summer vacation in Antalya. He says he wanted to leave her when she got back, but she threatened to jump out of their 15th-floor window if he did.
He destroyed her mobile phone, but stayed with her.
Looking back, Ahmet S. says that forgiving her might have been the one mistake he made over the years.’

(…)

‘Ahmet S. says his wife cheated on him repeatedly and that she taped her second mobile phone to the bottom of the trash can in the bathroom. One time when he caught her, he hit her on the head with a bottle. He says the boys were often alone during that time, and when both parents were home, things got loud. He, the father, grew addicted to gambling and the mother to shopping. She bought her boys everything they wanted: computers, mobile phones, video game consoles, expensive clothing.’

(…)

‘At the time of Emre’s early release from prison, Pierre Vogel was making the rounds through German cities, drawing crowds of thousands at rallies reminiscent of pop concerts. He would marry young couples on stage and explain to his followers why they should reject the Western lifestyle. There was a growing movement of young people who wanted to create a new home for themselves. Those who chose this home could be absolved of all their sins and collect points that could lead them to heaven. It was a kind of youth rebellion against their parents and the society they had been born into – a rebellion conceived and manifested in the major cities of Western Europe.’

(…)

‘Before the sons left Germany, they lived alone in a small apartment. Emre had married a young woman from the scene. Their leader from Solingen had left Germany and moved to Egypt. During the last two months before their departure, the brothers defrauded companies including the electronics store ProMarkt, the supermarket chain Rewe, IKEA and H&M of goods worth more than 30,000 euros.
They drove to Istanbul in a rented brown Ford Kuga. Their mother joined them on the trip. They left the car at the Istanbul airport and took a flight to Cairo. At first, they stayed in a hotel, visited the pyramids and then said goodbye to their mom before continuing on to Mohamed Mahmoud.
They lived together with Mahmoud, rapper Deso Dogg and other followers from the scene.
Back in Germany, their mother drove Emre’s wife to the airport in Amsterdam who flew to join them.’

(…)

‘A smuggler took Ahmet’s sons across the Syrian border. Their passports were burned, and they were taken to a training camp in the mountains and later to Aleppo. There, they uploaded selfies of themselves holding guns to their Facebook profiles.
During his later FBI interrogation, Emre’s recollection of their time in Syria filled 61 pages. He said that when they arrived, a Syrian fighter offered him his sister as a wife. Emre’s first wife had died in a car accident in Libya, so Emre got married a second time, but he divorced his second wife a short time later. He started looking around on the internet. There were chat groups on Facebook and "wedding forums” with young women from Western Europe who offered themselves as wives to fighters in Syria.
On Sept. 2, 2013, the parents of Samra N. filed a missing person report in Trier.
The next day, traffic police officers stopped a yellow VW Fox on the A3 autobahn between Frankfurt and Würzburg, a routine check. The mother of Emre and Ismail was at the wheel and Samra N. was in the passenger seat. The two women said they were on their way to see friends in Munich.
The next day, Samra N. flew from Vienna to Turkey. From there, she continued onward to Syria.’

(…)

‘A few days before IS captured Mosul and proclaimed a "caliphate,” the parents back in Cologne learned that a grandchild would soon be born in Syria. Ismail’s wife was pregnant. He took over the shop space of someone who had been driven out of Jarabulus. At the same time, Emre founded a company in Ankara, which he named Warrior Gear, to send supplies to his brother.
A growing number of people were fleeing the country and more and more volunteer fighters were traveling to Syria. They needed weapons, combat clothing and drones.
Ismail was able to negotiate a monopoly with the IS, a kind of "exclusive arrangement,” as Emre referred to it in his FBI interrogation. Anyone looking for military equipment in Jarabulus had to buy it from Ahmet’s sons. The parents may have since been banned from leaving Germany, but they continued sending their sons money, and Emre ordered the goods on the internet. In his transactions, he used the name of a Syrian soldier whose documents Ismail had sent him: "Kassab,” meaning butcher.
He bought 300 Chinese rifle slings and 30 solar-powered mobile phone chargers. He ordered American military pants, Russian military fatigues and German combat goggles. Emre packed them in a bag, drove to the border and handed them over to a Syrian smuggler.
The pants that Emre bought for $25 were then sold by Ismail in his new store for $100. Goggles worth $26 sold in Jarabulus for $75, and $20 chargers went for $150.
The brothers communicated through the chat channels of the video games "Command and Conquer” and "Act of Aggression.” Emre would go to hookah bars, bus stations and the restrooms of business centers to meet with couriers.’

(…)

‘The IS issued a manual to its slave owners regulating what they were allowed to do with the women: Sexual intercourse with a slave who had not yet reached sexual maturity was permitted if the slave was suited for it. It also stated that sexual intercourse was only available to those who took complete possession of the prisoner.
In Raqqa, Ismail had been bothered for quite some time about the new lifestyle his big brother had adopted in Turkey. Emre was now living on the Turkish Riviera with his Ukrainian stripper.
At some point, Ismail broke off business relations with his sibling. Emre traveled to Syria to settle the dispute. Upon his arrival, Ismail gave his brother a slave.’

(…)

‘When asked whether he considers his sons to be terrorists, Ahmet S. laughs.
No, he says, his sons are a disgrace to all terrorists. They didn't even fight at the front, he says. All they did was make money, take slaves and live their lives. And whenever things got tight, Ahmet S. goes on, they would always say: "Mama, send some money."’

Read the complete article here.

What a tale.

Real existing terrorism: taking sex slaves, making a profit, living on mama's money in cases of emergency.

And as we knew from former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan: people sell weapons to the enemy, with which they might be killed. Also this is economy.