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Azerbaijan has long earned the status of one of the main sources for recruiting new fighters into the “Islamic State” (IS) whose militants get “serious support from the Azerbaijani citizens,” 365news.biz writes.

Azerbaijani citizen, head of the IS Turkish subdivision, Abdulla Abdullayev, was detained in Istanbul last week. He dispatched the newcomers recruited in Azerbaijan and Caucasus republics to Islamist-controlled territories. Besides Abdullayev, several dozens of Azerbaijanis who were going to join the terrorists were detained, as well.

According to 365news.biz, Abdullayev was considered to be a key figure in the Turkish pit of the armed gang. In addition, IS also has many warlords from Azerbaijan. The leader Abu Khattab Al Azeri is among the most notorious ones with his squad having participated in some notorious acts and terror attacks.

Haqqin.az cites the website Islamazeri as publishing the photo of the 18-year-old militant Hamza Azeri, nicknamed Hamzat Lamro, from Nakhijevan, who fought for IS and was liquidated in the Syrian city Kobani. Notably, Hamza Azeri’s father, Hafiz Azeri, is a terrorist, too, and still goes on fighting for the IS.

The Azerbaijanis are actively engaged and operate not only in the IS, but also in another terrorist organization Al-Caeda which is rival to the IS. For instance, 30-year-old Mahmud Azeri, an Azerbaijani from Baku, is the commander of one of Al-Caeda subdivisions and fights against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops and Shia groups, particularly the IS.
Mahmud Azeri told Timeturk portal, Al-Caeda media wing, that there are hundreds of Azerbaijanis currently fighting in Syria, who are not IS militants. When asked about Al-Caeda’s plans regarding Azerbaijan, Mahmud Azeri said he wished “the Azerbaijanis recognized the true Islam.”

The Azerbaijani terrorists have long been fighting in the ranks of various terrorist groups in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Azerbaijani media reported about the death of about 200 Azerbaijani terrorists Syria alone over the past three years. There have also been frequent media reports about Azerbaijani terrorist commanders’ liquidation.

Azerbaijan has recently increased pressure on the religious activists and communities, which are suspected of having ties with Wahhabis. According to some opinions, the Salafists who joined the Islamist groups in Syria and returned to Azerbaijan with fighting experience can target Ilham Aliyev’s government.

The relationship between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan originated in the early 1990s. That time, the Azerbaijani army, having failed in the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), retreated with losses. Trying to save the situation, the Azerbaijani leadership, headed by Heydar Aliyev attracted to the war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh international terrorists and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (groupings of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Turkey ("Grey Wolves", etc.), Chechnya (groupings Basayev and Raduyev etc.) and some other regions.

Despite the involvement of thousands of foreign mercenaries and terrorists in the Azerbaijani army during the war, the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic failed, and the Baku authorities were forced to sign an armistice with the NKR and Armenia. However, international terrorists established ties in Azerbaijan, and used them in the future. The Azerbaijanis were recruited and sent to Afghanistan and the North Caucasus, where they participated in the battles against the forces of the international coalition and Russian organizations.

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