NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The countries of the former Soviet Union are not shy at highlighting the threat that radical Islamists pose to stability. Without heavy police measures, the Islamists would destabilise their countries, they say.

Azerbaijan is no different.

A court in Baku jailed a group of 29 people for allegedly plotting to bomb various targets around Azerbaijan ahead of the Eurovision Song Context in May 2012.

Three of of the group received life sentences.

Analysts and human rights activists have challenged the authorities’ version of events. They have said the state exaggerates the threat to impose their control.

Certainly most of Azerbaijan’s 9m inhabitants are Shi’ite Muslim, although the state itself is nominally secular. The last major bomb attack in Azerbaijan was the 1994 bombing of the Baku metro when 27 people died. Separatists in the north of the country, rather than Islamist extremists, claimed responsibility for the attack.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)

NOV. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Islamist fighters from Russia’s North Caucasus region are crossing into Azerbaijan on their way to fight in Syria, Reuters reported. The movement of Islamic fighters through Azerbaijan is a security concern for the Azerbaijani authorities. Azerbaijan borders Dagestan, in the North Caucasus.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)