Baku toughens methods against terrorism and opposition

A potential threat in Azerbaijan comes from small religious groups, ideologically close to the terrorist "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia, experts believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 26 it became know about the murder in a special operation of Djeikhun Odjagov Islam oglu, an Azerbaijani citizen, whom power agents called a religious extremist.

So far in Azerbaijan, all the phenomena of religious extremism and armed attacks have been associated with the Islamic trend of radical Salafism, said Tofig Tyurkel, a politics and religion observer of the "Turan" Agency.

In his opinion, these groups have always been linked with international terrorist organizations, namely: "Djeyshullakha" (Allah’s Army), which was defeated in the country in late 1990s; the banned in Russia "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami" (Islamic Liberation Party), "Al-Qaeda" (in the 1990s and early 2000s), ISIL and others.

According to Khikmet Gadjizade, the head of the FAR Centre for Political and Economic Studies, about 50,000 resident of Azerbaijan are professing Salafism; however, in his opinion, only "100 of them may be linked with international terrorist groupings."

Zardusht Alizade, an Orientalist, political analyst and Arabist, believes that Azerbaijani authorities are often using the war on terrorism "to combat the forces, undesirable for strengthening the ruling regime."

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