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Terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has occupied almost all the mosques in Istanbul where citizens of Azerbaijan are being trained for a future war in Syria. As Azerbaijani news portal Haqqin.az reports, this was announced by one of the leaders of Jafari religious movement Hasan Kanaalti.

He mentioned that ISIL has taken control of a number of mosques in the regions of Fatih, Ataşehir, Esenyurt and Bağcılar. Young people from Azerbaijan undergo training in these mosques after which they are sent to war in Syria, reports the source.
“The authorities do nothing and we are going to ensure the security of our community ourselves. We have called for meetings with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, however we haven’t received any response from him for more than 10 days,” said Kanaalti.
According to him a couple of days ago there was an attack on Muhammadi mosque where the members of Jafari community were holding gatherings; the attack was probably carried out by the members of ISIL.

“We were told that we would not be allowed to pray Azan. One of the regions in which ISIL is based is Fatih. There the Salafis distribute booklets and fuel anti-Shia aggression. They have created an extended network of their missions in Ataşehir where prior to being sent to Syria young jihadists from Azerbaijan are hosted for a couple of days. The government cannot but know about this”, - he said.

As reported by Iranian news agency IRNA, the restraints on political and religious activities in Azerbaijan are one of the main reasons why ISIL considers this country a fertile soil for the recruitment of jihadists. On the world map published by ISIL Azerbaijan has to be a part of the caliphate proclaimed by this organization.

The citizens of Azerbaijan are fighting among various terrorist groupings in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the data of Azerbaijani information agency Vesti.az, the total number of the Azerbaijani terrorists in these countries is 300. Meanwhile, according to the information provided by the Azerbaijani mass media only in Syria about 200 Azerbaijani terrorists died within the last three years. Mass media has also many times informed about the liquidation of the commanders among the Azerbaijani terrorists.