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President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree October 17 to dismiss the country's National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov Ahmad oglu from his post, Azerbaijani information agency Trend reports.

Turan agency highlights that the decision was made public on the eve of the Independence Day, after Ilham Aliyev returned from the CIS country heads’ summit in Kazakhstan, where one of the key issues under close-door discussion was countering the international Islamic terrorism.

According to the agency, it was during Mahmudov’s office in the MNS, when the organization seriously expanded operations in Azerbaijan, tracking and persecuting those opposing the regime. All the civil society institutions, including political parties, NGOs, media outlets and social networks, fell under the close scrutiny of the agency. The MNS turned into a Stalin-like all-seeing eye fulfilling the will of the political leadership of the country.

According to Turan, further “loud resignations” are ahead in the near future. One way or another, as the agency has it, something unusual was going on around the MNS on Sunday. The main entrance to the office was wide open with cars with other offices’ numbers keeping vigil by it. Some people, looking like investigators, were on duty with paper-cases and briefcases by the entrance all the time. This all looked like checks or seizure of documents was going on inside. Nevertheless, there came no official confirmation of Mahmudov or someone else’s arrest; on the contrary, such allegations were denied.

As Mahmudov’s successor regards, there seems to be no obvious candidate. Given that the country’s leadership expressed distrust in Mahmudov, none of his deputies can possibly be promoted for the post. The names of the generals Ramil Usubov, Maherram Aliyev and Vahid Aliyev are mentioned as possible candidates. Maherram Aliyev and Vahid Aliyev are among the presidential advisors, and Usubov is one of the most trusted persons, has a great experience and maintains significant information about the state of affairs among the top leadership and apparatus games. 

Meanwhile, politicians and experts discuss the reasons of the loud dismissal of the Minister of National Security of Azerbaijan, Eldar Mahmudov. According to Minval.az, the former ambassador of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the European Union, Arif Mammadov, wrote on his Facebook that Eldar Mammadov had taken a huge sum of money from the International Bank of Azerbaijan, and most of the money disappeared.

“He was not able to pay back the money in time. Moreover, the money through the International Bank went to third countries through the bank of the Minister’s cousin Chingiz Asadullayev, the owner of Azerigasbank. Mahmudov also established powerful personal ties with the Israeli intelligence, something that could not but concern Moscow. Moscow may have dug out some serious discrediting evidence about the Minister, and informed the president about it during his latest trip,” the ex-ambassador posted. “Given that the MNS consisted of the Minister’s close people, that office, just like the Foreign Ministry, will lose its working capacity for a long period. It is well known that a significant number of that Ministry’s staffers – loyal to the Minister personally – work in the country’s embassies abroad. It is possible that some of them follow the diplomats’ example and refuse to return applying for a political emigrant’s status.”

Arastun Orujlu, a well-known expert and a former staffer of the MNS of Azerbaijan, claims Mahmudov’s serious financial problems were the reason of his dismissal. In particular, he invested the top leadership’s resources into business in Russia through his employees, however, those billions actually were lost because of the sanctions against Moscow. In addition, Mahmudov reached for Erdogan’s circles with the help of his business partner, a well-known billionaire in Turkey. He tried to get the Turkish president’s support to be appointed in the post of the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan. Ilham Aliyev did not like this; however, no one touched Mahmudov because of Russia’s support, according to Orujlu. However, this time it was Moscow who surrendered him, the expert assumes.

In addition, Azerbaijani information portal Haqqin.az reports that Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council of the country on 18 October 2015. Heads of security structures and chiefs of the MNS subdivisions took part in the meeting. Mahmudov’s resignation and issues of national security of Azerbaijan were discussed during the Security Council meeting.

It is also reported that as a result of quick actions, staffers of the Monitoring center of the MNS of Azerbaijan (the phone surveillance office), Natavan Mammadova and Major-General Teymur Quliyev, as well as the deputy head of the Antiterrorism center, Ilgar Aliyev, were detained.  All the detainees are kept in the MNS jail. The Monitoring Center is sealed and is under investigation. As for the former Minister of National Security, informed sources report he is currently at home, factually under house arrest.

According to Haqqin.az, the Minister’s dismissal was predetermined after the collapse of the banking system of Azerbaijan, and the point is not that Jahangir Hajiyev, the former chairman of the International Bank, was the Minister’s close relative. The MNS was not capable of providing the security of the financial institutes and the banking system of the country. Haqqin.az writes that the leadership of the Ministry appeared to be engaged in some suspicious deals of bank lending, and it is not a secret for anyone that Mahmudov was more a businessman than a head of special services. Apparently, he not only failed to provide a financial security, but he also was unable to protect his banks. “Over the recent years, the MNS has become the main punitive agency for the small and medium-sized businesses,” the website writes.

The portal further writes that Mahmudov was mostly expected to conduct preventive measures for the fight against the Islamic radicalism, especially in the period of the escalation of the international circumstances and the aggravation of the situation in the region.

“What was it really? An utter failure of the intelligence work, a paralysis of reconnaissance, a reincarnation of a special service, which was meant to defend the state interests, into a banal OBKhSS. The business elite of the country, as well the small and medium-sized businesses, suffered more of the illegal checks of the MNS, than of the corresponding law enforcement agencies, whose obligation is to deal with those checks. The question then arises: there were arrests of Islamic radicals, terrorists and others engaged in popularizing the militant Islam in Muslim countries, weren’t there? Alas, most of those arrests were rather the merit of the quick operation services in the format of the international counterterrorism partnership, than the MNS. The situation reports were handed over them, and they just jailed them,” Haqqin.az points out.