SHAKHIDS APPEAR IN AZERBAIJAN: IMPOVERISHMENT AND THE UNSOLVED PROBLEM OF KARABAKH TRANSFORM THE COUNTRY INTO A BRIDGEHEAD FOR RADICAL ISLAM
by Sokhbet Mamedov

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 10, 2006, p. 10

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
April 12, 2006 Wednesday

ACTIVIZATION OF RADICAL RELIGIOUS AND TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN
AZERBAIJAN: ANALYSIS; Activization of radical religious and terrorist
organizations in Azerbaijan: analysis.

National Security Minister of Azerbaijan Eldar Makhmudov made
a sensational statement the other day. Speaking of successes of
Azerbaijani secret services (they celebrated their 87th anniversary not
long ago), Makhmudov said, “We are fairly experienced in dealing with
radical religious and terrorist organizations, but we were shocked by
the reports that Al-Qaeda Caucasus, a terrorist group we liquidated,
intended to recruit Azerbaijani girls into the shakhid.”

According to the minister, as recently as five years ago most
terrorists arrested in Azerbaijan were on their way to other countries
or else they were using the territory of Azerbaijan to organize
terrorist acts elsewhere. These days, they plan terrorist acts in
Azerbaijan itself – either on their own or acting on orders from
international terrorist organizations.

Secret services encounter religious-extremist groups “bent on toppling
the secular democratic regime in the country and on having Azerbaijan
quit the international counter-terrorism coalition” more and more
frequently nowadays. Activization of radical religious and terrorist
groups in Azerbaijan is ascribed to its convenient location, major
international projects under way on its territory, existence of a
great deal of vital objects of infrastructure and transport, and to
some other factors. All of that transformed Azerbaijan into an arena
of a vicious struggle between different Islamic trends and schools –
Arab, Turkish, and Iranian. All of that generates considerable problems
for the authorities to handle.

The worst threat is posed by the forces and circles proliferating
Islamic fundamentalism in the republic. Missionaries from Arab
countries (particularly from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey)
are extremely active. The nucleus of the cells of extremists they
establish in Azerbaijan comprises young locals 20 to 25 years from
impoverished families, students of theology, and the unemployed.

These missionaries offer local youths free religious education in
Islamic countries. This practice is used to import the newly acquired
knowledge and views to Azerbaijan.

Just like in the Russian Caucasus, the Wahhabi are particularly
radical in Azerbaijan where they amass around all sorts of charity
foundations, religious establishments, and media outlets. According
to some estimates, the Wahhabi already number more than 25,000 men.

This Islamic trend is predominant in the northern regions of
Azerbaijan on the border with Russia, the ones with the mostly Sunni
population. Local newspapers call the Abu-Bekir, a mosque built with
money from Saudi sponsors, the center of Wahhabi in Baku. A great
deal of the believers who regularly attend the mosque are citizens
of Russia – ethnic Chechens residing in Azerbaijan. “The Wahhabi are
already a force capable of exerting serious clout with sociopolitical
life in the country,” political scientist Rafael Gasanov said.

Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies claim that liquidation of a
number of structures in the last ten years or so that shipped young
Azerbaijani abroad for combat training and that recruited mercenaries
for wars abroad. Secret services arrested and extradited numerous
activists of Al-Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Al-Jamaa Al-Islamia,
Islamic Army of the Caucasus, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They
neutralized local organizations of Jeishullah, Hizb-ut-Takhrir,
Al-Qaeda Caucasus, Al-Muvahiddin. Baku offices of a number of foreign
humanitarian organizations were closed as suspected sponsors of
terrorism.

Studying radical Islamization of the Azerbaijani youth, political
scientist Sanan Nuri pins the blame on the growing number of illiterate
and desperate youths, the continuing occupation of 20% of the territory
of Azerbaijan by Armenia, and refugee camp where all sorts of external
forces operate under the guise of humanitarian organizations. Unless
these problems are addressed to and solved, Azerbaijan will remain
a perfect site for radical organizations and sects.