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“So far, none of the extremist and radical Islamic organizations have released threatening announcements directed to Azerbaijan. The information that appeared in our media is a product fabricated by Baku and it doesn’t have anything to do with the above mentioned organizations. I’m telling this with full responsibility,” Arif Yunus, Azerbaijani conflictologist said about this to Azerbaijani news portal Minval.az when commenting on the recent information released by press that the radical organizations threat Azerbaijan with terrorism.

Yunus said that he had been studying Islamic websites and radical Islamists for many years and knew how or what they wrote. “And it is not just that they never conceal anything and always freely comment about their plans and activities on their websites. Currently there is nothing of similar kind in their websites. But most importantly their language is different and it is here, where the authors of the fake information blundered! Language of atheists can be clearly noticed on the posters presented by media. The believers, moreover radical believers have a different style of writing this kind of threats. I don’t even speak about the fact that it was written against a background of Azerbaijani flag which is not recognized by radical Islamists,” Yunus said.

The expert stressed that the search for the author (or authors) of this fake information should be conducted in Baku and among non believers. According to Yunus this provocation is handwork of special services of Azerbaijan.

“As after this kind of “threats” repressions and arrests of believers are being carried out. Though, the direction of repressions depends on the situation. For example, when relations between Iran and Azerbaijan deteriorate all at once in Azerbaijan a group of “Iranian spies” is found and arrested or when International organizations or USA with the EU adopt some documents against the policies of Azerbaijani authorities in the field of democracy, again, one should expect an arrest of a group (by the way, a group not an individual) of “terrorists”,” he said.

Moreover, as the expert mentioned, trials of these “spies” and “terrorists” are held behind the closed doors, while the public is only informed about the final result; who and how many years will spend in prison.

Yunus noted that according to the Institute of Peace and Democracy by the first of January, 2014, 296 believers have been imprisoned in Azerbaijan. From all of these prisoners only in the case of 33 (11%) one can be sure that they are guilty and the sentence is legal (they are accused of being a part of illegal armed organizations out of the country) while in all other cases there are so many falsifications that there is no doubt that those people became the victims of the authorities’ policy towards the believers, the expert noted.

“Well, take the case of “Iranian spy” Hilal Mamedov. The authorities haven’t even paid attention that he is not Shia, he is Sunni and an outspoken opponent of current regime of Iran, who even wrote articles about that! What about the “case” of Tale Baghirov? The authorities use those arrests in their propaganda in the West where they present themselves “as the only and faithful defender of secular principles in Azerbaijan” (I quoted one of the pro-governmental deputies of U.S),” Yunus said.

However, Yunus acknowledged that the situation on the sphere of religion is not promising and there is a group of radical believers who in addition to that, really fight in Syria as well as in other countries and regions of the West.

Conflictologist noted that Soviet era is gone and the role as well as the impact of religion will increase in Azerbaijan. “However, the authorities follow the old Soviet path and use only one policy; repressions against all, in this case against believers. Meanwhile, believers in Azerbaijan don’t have identical views. They are different. And not all of them take radical positions,” the expert stated.

Yunus posited that the majority of the believers in Azerbaijan don’t interfere into politics, they live their lives and don’t want anyone to disturb them. “However, their mere presence creates fear among those who are afraid of the growth of religion in the country. Currently the government of Azerbaijan launched a campaign of forced radicalization of believers,” he said.

According to the expert despite the repressions and campaigns against Salafis in mass media, there is an increase in their amount. “With the growing repression campaign the numbers of those who shift from moderate to radical positions rise. The authorities themselves breed radicalization,” Yunus claimed.