Caspian News


By Mushvig Mehdiyev
June 26, 2020

In a new report, the Department of State of the United States labeled
Azerbaijan as a terror-free country, attributing this achievement to
well-coordinated anti-terrorism activities pursued by various
government bodies in 2019.

    “In 2019, the Azerbaijani government actively worked to deter,
detect, and defeat terrorist efforts to move people, money, and
materials across its land and maritime borders and within the South
Caucasus,” read the report that was published on June 24, adding there
no reported terrorist incidents in Azerbaijan in 2019.

“Azerbaijani law enforcement and security services conducted
operations to disrupt and prevent terror attacks, arrested and
prosecuted suspected terrorists, and prosecuted returning Azerbaijanis
suspected of joining or financing terrorist groups fighting outside
Azerbaijan," the report explained.

According to the report, a well-organized coordination between the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service, involving
the services of the State Border Service, and the State Customs
Committee yielded positive results in preventing terrorist acts and
efforts inside the country. The government bodies used terrorist and
criminal watch lists, and biographic/biometric screening at ports of
entry. In addition, they shared the obtained data among themselves,
and with regional and international partners to comprehensively deter
any activity that can relate to terrorism, including the
transportation of people, money, and materials – including weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) – across Azerbaijan’s territory.

The law of Azerbaijan on the Fight against Terrorism identifies what
activities are considered terrorism and how those affiliated with such
activities are defined and punished. A terrorist, according to the
law, is a person who is directly or indirectly involved in deliberate
acts of terrorism as an organizer, instigator, assistant, executor or
eager, as well as helps knowingly a terrorist group, an organized
group or a criminal community carry out terror activities. According
to the legislation, as well as interstate treaties to which the
country is a party, such persons can be prosecuted and punished, or
they may be returned to foreign countries for bringing to criminal
liability or for the execution of assigned punishment.

Despite full-fledged anti-terror policy adopted by Baku, some citizens
of what is the largest nation of the South Caucasus have been reported
to join the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization in Syria and
Iraq. In September 2017, the officials in the State Security Service
said that around 900 Azerbaijani citizens joined the IS since 2012.
Law enforcement bodies detained 85 of them and brought to criminal
liability. Some 195 have been deprived of the Azerbaijani citizenship,
while many died during fights.

The State Department's report mentioned the Azerbaijani government's
efforts to consolidate non-combat struggle against violent extremism.
The State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations revealed in
April that it has teamed up with the Ministry of Education and the
Caucasus Muslim Board to develop a course to include in the curriculum
of public middle schools and public universities in Azerbaijan as
early as September 2020. The primary goal of the course is to promote
the state’s “secular policy and help counter the spread of radical and
fundamentalist movements,” the report reads referring to the
Committee.

Alongside the persistent efforts to block terrorist activities and
efforts within Azerbaijan, the officials in Baku contribute
simultaneously to global anti-terror efforts. Azerbaijan supports NATO
counterterrorism initiatives as part of the Alliance’s Partnership for
Peace program. Peacekeepers from the country serve in Afghanistan
alongside US forces under NATO’s non-military Resolute Support
Mission. Currently, 120 peacekeeping troops from the Caspian Sea
country settle in Afghanistan. The International Contact Group’s
conference dedicated to promote peace and security in Afghanistan took
place in Baku in June 2018.