Azerbaijan concerned about growing Iran’s influence

Ali Ragab

Iran has always posed a threat to the Gulf security, especially the neighboring Arab countries. Iran’s regime has always targeted Sunni countries. However, Tehran’s mullah regime is targeting Azerbaijan, 70% of its population of 9 million people are Shiite. That raises a number of questions.

Azerbaijan’s government is growing increasingly concerned about what it sees as growing Iranian manipulation of the country’s Shia Muslim believers.

Azerbaijan’s security services recently presented senior government officials with a report describing how Iran has “increased its capabilities in Azerbaijan’s regions,” one analyst close to the government told Eurasianet.org. “Many more people are now under Iran’s influence, and this has sounded alarm bells inside the government,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Zaur Shiriyev, who wrote the Eurasia net report, said in 2013, Azerbaijan relaxed restrictions, in effect an informal ban, on religious figures linked to Iran on preaching in public.

ut now it appears the policy is having unintended consequences, resulting in what authorities believe is increased control by Iran over Shia practice in Azerbaijan. According to official data, 22 of the 150 Shia madrassas in the country are “under the control of Iran,” wrote Kenan Rovshanoglu in a recent report for the Azerbaijani news agency Turan.

Many secular Azerbaijanis have been alarmed by the increasing visibility of Shia practices in the country. During the Ashura celebrations in September in Baku, some children participated in the ritual, which involves self-flagellation. “When I saw children, who do not have a real understanding of religion, wearing hijab and attending Ashura ceremonies, I thought they are going to become kamikazes to be sent in the future to Syria,” said MP Zahid Oruc.

Baku is concerned about Iran’s relations with Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia have tensions over the Nagorno Karabakh region.

Mohamed Benayah, an expert on Iranian affairs, has said that Iran is seeking to control the world’s Shiites.

“Iran is seeking to promote the mullah regime, which is a Shiite theory initiated by Khomeini. Iran is worried about Azeri nationalism in particular,” Benayah told THE REFERENCE.

“Azeris are the only ethnic group in Iran that has a state. There is no state for the Kurds nor the Baloch or Ahvazis. The Azeri group is the most prominent nationality in Iran,” he said.

“The Azeris are also a key economic power in Tehran. That poses a threat to Iran’s falling economy. That also opens the way for independence and the collapse of the Iranian state,” he said.

“Therefore, Iran is seeking to change the Shiite identity of Azerbaijan’s Shiites by promoting the mullah regime in a bid to control Azerbaijan,” he added.