Paper warns of "war of regions" in Azerbaijan

Zerkalo website, Baku
17 Jun 06

Azerbaijan is coming under threat from radical movements in both the
north and the south of the country because of the rise in radical
Islamic groups, an Azeri newspaper has reported. In the north,
anti-Shiite fundamentalist organizations are gaining strength and Iran
is using anti-US propaganda to win support in the south. The paper
says residents in the Lerik district regard Iran as their Motherland
and say that if the Americans attack Iran they will fight them. The
following is an excerpt from the report by I. Abbasov and A. Rasidoglu
entitled "War of the regions" published on Azerbaijani newspaper
Zerkalo website on 17 June; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

"Non-believers and servants of the devil have managed to a large
extent to bury the true religion of God. Only in Iran could Muslims
preserve Islam."

[passage omitted: Islam still being preserved in Iran]

Iran "Motherland" to people in south

A Zerkalo correspondent became personally convinced that there is a
sense of a "successful Iranian war of propaganda", which has begun in
the southern regions of our country, and, it seems, Teheran is again
gambling on being one step ahead. Some people in the villages of Lerik
[close to the Iranian border in Azerbaijan] have made it clear that
they consider Iran to be their Motherland. It goes without saying
that they know who Iran’s enemies are, that is those who oppose it,
in other words "the Zionists and servants of the devil".

In Lerik, some of the people we spoke to wanted to prove to us that
the Almighty is summoning Muslims to fight against the non-believers.

In over 100 ayats [chapters] of the Holy Koran they are instructed
to fight on God’s path. "God knows best what is good for us," some
of the people of Lerik said. We should point out straightaway that it
is not a question that in this region orthodox Muslims have begun to
hold on to the canons of Islam. That is not the point. Even with the
naked eye one can see that, hiding behind religion, certain circles
have started to play a political game.

"We are not afraid of the USA. We are expecting the Americans to
attack the sacred land of Iran. And then we shall rise against
the non-believers. We cannot wait for our spiritual leader Seyyed
Ali Khamene’i or some other member of the mojahedin to declare the
beginning of a Jihad. As soon as it happens, like true Muslims we shall
defend our religion from the Zionists," the father of two children
told a Zerkalo correspondent. In a word, they tried to convince us that
defending the Muslims is not politics. Those people who are prepared to
die for Iran’s integrity have not even allowed themselves to believe
that Karabakh is our land, it is occupied, and that we are committed
before God and before our Motherland to liberate it. In other words,
the occupation of Iran by the USA is more important to them than the
liberation of Karabakh. "Islam is the main thing. We shall gladly die
for our religion, and everything else has no particular significance
for us," some people in the southern region tried to convince us.

Whatever the situation, there is no doubt that Iran’s positions in
the southern regions of Azerbaijan are very strong. But this is not
the most terrible thing. Some people are trying to sow hatred in the
conscience of our citizens for our own brothers in faith, the Sunnis.

For some reason, the "Islamists" of Lerik believe that it is the
Sunnis, and especially the Wahhabis, who are to blame for all
our misfortunes, because they are a "black stain" in the history
of Islam. [passage omitted: those who damage Islamic unity are
considered pagans]

Boycott of US goods

"The anti-American war in the southern regions has already begun,
albeit at the moment only in the form of a boycott of American goods.

Here people do not buy products and other goods imported from the
States. The young people in Lerik are awaiting the Imam Mehdi (the
12th Imam, whom the Shi’ites believe to be their saviour). But this –
this "awaiting" – is based on Iran’s policy. It is only there that
they know when and how it will happen. "If they tell us that our
president is a despot, then we shall rise against him," says Ali,
21, who believes that personal opinions are unimportant – the main
thing is the fatwah of the mojahedin.

A resume of the conversations we had with a separate section of the
people of Lerik amounts to the following: "Our time will soon come.

And then there will be days of hell for those non-believers who do
not follow the canons of Islam."

Anti-Shi’ite book circulated

One could have paid no particular attention to the views of certain
people in Lerik, but everything the correspondent saw in this region
speaks of the beginning of a major plan with which the Zerkalo
newspaper has already acquainted its readers. Thus, yesterday the
APA agency published a report in its bulletins which says that in the
northern regions of Azerbaijan copies of a book by anonymous authors
entitled "How I came under oppression" are being distributed. The book
is directed against the Shi’ites. In it a number of serious indignities
are used. "We have information that this book was written by members of
certain radical groups of the Abu-Bakr mosque [in Baku]. Every believer
who has received this book is obliged to copy it and re-distribute
it. The book is a response to the existing anti-Sunni direction of
the three-volume work ‘How I started to believe’," the source told APA.

We will note that some time ago al-Tijani’s book "How I started to
believe" was distributed in the northern regions. It was reported that
it was published in Iran. The book which was sold in front of the holy
place Khizir-Zinda in Siyazan District, and was later confiscated by
members of the law-enforcement bodies. Now in the northern regions
the third volume of al-Tijani’s book is being distributed underground.

In the northern regions of Azerbaijan religious fundamentalism,
aimed against Shi’ism, is manifest in acute forms. Clearly, the
special services of our northern neighbour are by no means averse to
exacerbating the situation in the regions bordering on Azerbaijan.

For example, in Qusar, Quba, Xacmaz, Siyazan and Balakan districts
radically minded religious organizations are being created, whose
activity is directed against the Shi’ites. Wahhabi and other extremist
organizations of a religious hue which are being created there are
virtually a pillar of Russia’s "sinister" designs against our country.

Extremist threats in north and south

In a word, Russia from the north and Iran from the south are slowly but
surely closing the ring around Azerbaijan. Zerkalo has already more
than once warned the public about the threat of the strengthening
positions of Wahhabism in the northern regions of the country and
the Iranization of the southern regions. Both currents have fairly
strong roots in the northern and central regions of Azerbaijan,
and also in Baku. In the absence of democracy and normal laws which
provide freedom of conscience and give a full guarantee to believers,
nobody should be surprised at such a phenomenon.

Interested circles are striving to shape in the public conscience
the assumption that various radical groups pose a serious threat of
instability in Azerbaijan. Clearly, they are doing this to divert
the attention of the population from the democratic and economic
processes. According to some reports, in the event of political
cataclysms in our country, the radically minded religious organizations
in the northern parts of Azerbaijan may be put on combat readiness.

Without doubt, the Iranian special services are taking advantage of
this to take control of those regions where the Shi’ite Muslims are
in the majority. We said earlier that the southern regions are being
turned into a proving ground for the Iranian special services; but
similar processes are occurring also in Abseron, Naxcivan and other
parts of the country. In other words, the way is being prepared for
an artificial confrontation between separate regions of Azerbaijan
under the camouflage of religious differences. Furthermore, according
to some media reports, if Baku joins the anti-Iranian coalition at
another "convenient moment" for themselves, some groups might start
to carry out terrorist acts in the capital. This could lead to the
beginning of a "war of the regions" in Azerbaijan, a war between the
north and south, which could lead to the dismemberment of the country.

In other words, it is clearly the feeble activity of the state
committee for work with religious structures and the Board of
Muslims of the Caucasus [BMC] which has brought all this about. At
the present moment it is only intelligent religious figures, who
are constantly subjected to persecution from the BMC, together with
the state structures, who are capable of preventing undesirable
processes. Educational work among the religiously minded electorate
might quench the passions of the foreign special services.

I would like to bring to the notice of the executive powers of the
southern and northern regions that allegiance to the state does
not just mean prostrating oneself to the ground but also the proper
management of the processes in one’s own "ancestral lands".