Political analysts state growth of terror threat in Azerbaijan

Since the start of the year, at least five persons were killed in Azerbaijan, whom power agents declared to be religious extremists. The level of terror threat in the country is on the rise, believe the political analysts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 26, 2017, the State Security Service (SSS) of Azerbaijan reported the killing in the course of a special operation of Odjagov, Jeikhun Islam oglu, a resident of Azerbaijan, who was treated by power agents as a religious extremist. On January 31, the SSS reported that at an attempt to detain a group of residents, who had joined the terrorist organizations, active outside Azerbaijan, four suspects were killed, and another one was detained.

In the opinion of Sulkhaddin Akper, a political analyst and former Deputy Minister of National Security of Azerbaijan, extremist groupings from Azerbaijan could swear allegiance to the international terrorist groupings active in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The recent special operation shows that Azerbaijan has become a target of international terrorism; and particular attacks may be planned in the country, Mr Akper said.

According to Tofig Turkel, an observer on religious and political issues of the Turan News Agency, certain forces in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and other countries may sponsor the spread of religious terrorism and extremism in Azerbaijan.

"They want to plant fear and chaos in order to implement their plans to establish their political influence in Muslim countries. We are talking about the scenarios, similar to those that we are seeing in Iraq and Syria," Mr Turkel told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.