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Another person died as a result of the injuries received during an armed incident between the law enforcement and believers in Nardaran settlement, Azerbaijan, APA news agency reports.
Natig Karimov, one of the elders of Nardaran, said that Farahim Bunyatov, taken to the Baku Clinical Hospital #3 immediately after the incident, died there because of the injuries. Karimov added that Rafael Bunyatov, Farahim’s brother, was killed during the incident as well. This raised the number of the killed Islamists to five.

According to Turan agency, the situation in Naradran was still tense on Saturday. Karimov told the agency that there was still no electricity in the settlement after being cut off on 27 November in the daytime. He said what aggravated the situation was that the settlement does not have gas supply either for a few years, which forces people to cut trees to heat their homes. “The settlement has nine thousand residents, including children and old and sick people. What does it mean to cut off electricity in this cold period?” Karimov said.

He noted that Azerishiq OJSC’s statement about the whole population of Nardaran being debtors angered them even more. “It seems like some hand specially adds fuel to the situation. This is not a way out,” Karimov said.

He informed the agency that the law enforcement have not still given them the corpses of those killed during the special operation. According to the elder, it is the investigation and the court that must find out those guilty. He highlighted that accusing people of committing crimes without a court decision is a violation of the presumption of innocence. Karimov protested against TV channels and officials regarding the Nardaran incidents as terror and activities against the state. The statement made by a representative of the Prosecutor General’s office that they ‘do not conduct negotiations with extremists’ in response to the elders’ offers to negotiate with the authorities was especially angering.

Turan reports that the police continued checking everyone driving in or out of Nardaran. Drivers’ documents were also checked in the neighbouring settlement Mashtaga.

According to Salamnews.az, the cut-off of the power supply in Nardaran has resulted in problems with providing the population with telephone communication. APA news agency cited Azerishiq OJSC as reporting that the debt of subscribers of Nardaran for electricity is 42 million 267 thousand manats, and the debt for gas – 1 million 376 thousand manats.

Turan, however, writes that Azerishiq’s figures raise serious doubts after a comparative analysis of the official data provided by the state statistics. According to the agency’s analysis, those figures show that Nardaran could accumulate such a debt only in 117 years’ time. The law on energy supply prohibits cutting off the electricity of the subscribers who have no debts, and there are such subscribers in Nardaran even according to Azerishiq, Turan points out.

The agency also reports that the filling stations near the settlement were closed down. There were also holdups in supplying bread and other foodstuff. Karimov, the elder of the settlement, said passport regime has actually been introduced in the settlement since 27 November, Friday, and people could not go to work or classes. “Several people from Nardaran were fired from their work at a bread-baking factory in settlement Bakikhanov,” Karimov said.

Nardaran protest, which lasted for several days, ended in the evening of 29 November after the local elders called on the participants to disperse. It was found appropriate to cease the protest in Nardaran central square and to open the streets inside the settlement in order to avoid provocations and confrontation with law enforcement, which could bring about further violence and new arrests. Reportedly, after the decision about ceasing the campaign was voiced, the protesters started to dismantle the tent where they were getting warm and praying during those days. They also started to pull down the stone piles used as barriers in the streets of the settlement.
Meanwhile, the police still blocked the streets in Nardaran on 29 November, Sunday, and light armoured vehicles appeared at the posts with the police cars. Only people with local registration were allowed to enter into the settlement, which was still deprived of electricity and fixed telephone communication. The locals also started to complain of the lack of food supplies in the light of the limited access of trading companies’ cars into the settlement.

In another article, Turan writes that Nardaran can be truly called an indicator of the public mood and processes going on in Azerbaijan for that settlement of nine thousand residents living in accord with patriarchal and Shia canons, reminds about itself in periods of escalation of socio-economic or political tensions in the country. This is due to Nardaran’s difference from other Baku villages and old blocks of the capital in its strict community life controlled by a general assembly of the village under the auspices of the elders and religious leaders. According to Turan, the history of the confrontation between the authorities and Nardaran shows that the current crisis in their relations is conditioned by the economical difficulties the country faced after the brief oil boom and the disturbances within the authorities as demonstrated in the scandals in the International Bank of Azerbaijan, Security Ministry and the Ministry of Communications and Information technologies. The authorities traditionally keep a close eye on both the public mood and its indicators, like Nardaran, to take up ‘preventive measures for averting any spread of organised public discontent in other regions of the country.’

Bakhtiyar Aliyev, an Azerbaijani MP, told Trend agency that Nardaran incidents were thought out by certain foreign circles to destabilise and pressure on Azerbaijan. Another MP, Fazail Agamali, said that the members of the ‘radical group,’ which are ‘programmed and funded by foreign forces,’ attempt to create in Azerbaijan a situation resembling that in Syria, Yemen and other Arabic countries.
Haqqin.az’s journalist reached the Iranian ambassador Mohsun Pak Ain for a comment voicing the opinion shared by many experts that Iran supports radical Islamist groups. The ambassador answered that ‘Iran has never supported any organisation acting against Azerbaijan.’
The website reports that the photos of the corpse of the Shia Islamists’ leader Taleh Bagirov’s ally, Akper Babayev, who was killed during the special ops of the law enforcement, were circulated in the social networks. The photos were reportedly shared on Facebook by users Haji Mahir and Natik Kazimov. The posted photos imply that the forensic medical examiners have dissected Akper Babayev’s body. Tattoos can be seen on his body; swastika is tattooed on both of his soles. While it is unknown when Babayev tattooed the fascist sign on his body, the website notes that any tattoo in itself contradicts the Islam canons.

According to the reports, about a hundred Islamists gathered at Lankaran district police on 29 November in the evening demanding the release of their detained allies, in particular, Seid Elman. In addition, Islamist Rasat Aliyev was detained in Neftchala on 28 November and sentenced to 10 days’ administrative arrest. The reasons of the detention are unknown but Aliyev reportedly got religious education in Iran.

On 26 November, armed clashes occurred between the leader of the Shia Islamists of Azerbaijan, Taleh Bagirzade (Taleh Bagirov), and his supporters and the police in the settlement Nardaran 25 km to the north from Baku. Reportedly, police carried out the special operation during the daytime prayer inciting the believers’ strong discontent. A group of Special Forces in black masks broke into the shrine Huseyniyye, where Muslims were praying, and threw smoke bombs inside. Then they pushed black sacks on Taleh Bagirzade and some others’ heads and dragged them out of the place. In addition, some drugs were given to several people, which made them faint. Immediately after that, mass unrest broke out in Nardaran.