OVER TEN INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST NETWORKS EXPANDING
THEIR ACTIVITES IN AZERBAIJAN,
Including “Al Qaeda”, “Islamic Jihad”, “Jeishullar”, “Muslim Brotherhood”...
Ahmad
Kadirov, the leader of the Chechen Republic announced at the meeting with
foreign journalists on July 25 that the Chechen separatists have close contacts
with al Qaeda and other radical Islamic networks. According to Kadirov, the
terrorists who receive external funding, penetrate into Chechnia via Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Daghestan.
The influential
American “The Wall Street Journal” (July 21, 2002) referred to one of the
perpetrators of the September 11 strike, Alman al Zauahri who spent several
months in the 'international' town Baku, about the activities of the Baku
cell of the Egyptian terrorist network 'Islamic Jihad'. The Wall Street Journal
confirmed once again the involvement of Azerbaijan in the international terrorism.
According to the
American intelligence service, the preparation and organization of the explosions
of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August, 1999 when 224 innocent
people died and over 5,000 were injured, were coordinated from Baku.
On July 26 “Washington
Profile”, an independent American information center wrote that as early as
in the late 80s’ the terrorist network al Qaeda opened a cell in Baku and
supported Azerbaijan in the war against Mountainous Karabagh. For the purpose
of participating in the Karabagh war 1,500 Afghan mojaheds arrived in Azerbaijan
in September of 1993. In the summer of 1994 their number reached 2,500. As
a matetr of fact, in September of 1993 Heydar Aliyev was the senior Commander
of the Armed Forced of Azerbaijan.
According to “Washington Profile” (July 5) the terrorist network al Qaeda,
headed by Usama bin Laden, has decided to move its headquarters from Afghanistan
to Baku. The head of the press-service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Azerbaijan, Araz Kurbanov denied these news and qualified the statement
as senseless since the Azeri authorities could not allow the terrorists to
base in Azerbaijan (newspaper “Azatlig”, July 6). It should be noted that
the information was provided to “Washington Profile” by the American secret
service.
“Given the favorable
geographical position of Azerbaijan, al Qaeda established here as well and
even developed the plan of exploding the American Embassy in Baku” (cf.: Central
Asia-Caucasus Organization of John Hopkins University, Newsletter, July 17).
According to the information of one of the American influential universities,
in the late 80s’ a number of international terrorist networks, such as al
Qaeda, HizbAllah, “Muslim Brotherhood”, established their cells in Azerbaijan.
Undoubtedly, the
Islamic terrorist networks functioning in Azerbaijan are not limited to the
aforementioned ones, including Hisbut Tahrir, Jihad, Ihvan ul-Muslimin, etc.
According to the
statistics of the state committee on religious issues of Azerbaijan, there
are over 2000 religious organizations in Azerbaijan of which only 400 are
registered. It is clear that the authorities in Baku and personally Heydar
Aliyev would not agree to the fact that any of such organizations, like al
Qaeda or Islamic Jihad are registered with the state committee on religious
issues of Azerbaijan.
The widely spread
corruption, the gradually deteriorating social-economic situation, the existence
of over 500,000 refugees and several other factors have created fertile soil
for the expansive activities of the terrorist networks. In respect of Azerbaijan
some experts are concerned that the threat of Islamism will increasingly become
more real in this former Soviet republic together with the escalation of the
social-economic crisis in Azerbaijan.
Today, after the
religious vacuum of the Soviet period, the young generation in Azerbaijan
again adheres to the Muslim traditions and regularly attends mosques. Mosques
are being build in Baku and throughout Azerbaijan. According to the data for
2001, there were around 1500 mosques in Azerbaijan. Half of them were not
registered and were maintained and financed from the funds provided by foreign
countries, the terrorist and other organizations.
On July 3, not
far from Baku, in the settlement of Nardaran bloody conflict took place between
the local believers and the police. According to the central newspapers of
Azerbaijan, Nardaran is under control of the Islamic extremists and disobeys
Baku. The protestors in Nardaran burnt ten police cars. Haji Alikram, one
of the leaders of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan qualified the incident in
Nardaran as a “crusade” of the Azeri authorities against the believers. Heydar
Aliyev strictly suppressed the commotion of the decent people of Nardaran.
If the international
terrorist networks operating in Azerbaijan threaten the countries of the region,
the radical Islamatization of Azerbaijan is a threat to the position held
by the Azeri authorities
