Azerbaijan: Where East Meets West, A Den Of Spies
by Sheera Frenkel
February 17, 2012
The small Central Asian country of Azerbaijan has found itself caught
up in the rising international tensions over neighboring Iran and its
nuclear program. Despite traditional ties with Iran, the former Soviet
republic has increasingly aligned itself with the West, and with
Israel.
An incident at a recent soccer match in the Iranian city of Tabriz is
still a point of pride in Azerbaijan. In the middle of the match,
hundreds of ethnic Azeris in the crowd broke out their national flags
and began to chant that the city belongs to them.
The video was a big hit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. It was a
rare demonstration by Iran’s ethnic Azeri minority, many of whom argue
that northern Iran should be part of a greater Azerbaijan – a
sentiment that is shared by many in Baku.
And that is not the only point of tension between the two Central
Asian neighbors. Recently, Baku and Tehran have traded accusations of
cross-border conspiracies and assassinations.
Like Norway Or Casablanca During WWII
Wedged between more powerful neighbors Russia, Turkey and Iran,
Azerbaijan has long served as an East-West meeting ground and
something of a den of spies where rival intelligence agents keep a
close eye on one another.
Mehman Aliyev is director of Turan, an independent Azerbaijani news
agency. He says that Azerbaijan realizes its position as a kind of
listening post.
“Of course Azerbaijan is the intersection of many foreign states,
whether it’s Russia, Iran, Turkey. It is where they mingle. And where
they obviously collect intelligence,” he says.
Azerbaijan’s role was established in the early 1980s, when it was
still part of the Soviet Union. The Soviets built military
installations along Azerbaijan’s southern border with Iran. In Gabala
in northern Azerbaijan, the Soviets built a missile early warning
system and intelligence base, which remain in use today. And the local
newspapers say there are two U.S. military installations now on
Azerbaijani territory.
Arastun Orujlu, a former counterintelligence officer and director of
the East-West Research Center in Baku, compares Azerbaijan’s
intelligence community to that of Norway or Casablanca during World
War II.
[Photo: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) meets with
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov (left) in Tehran in
March 2011. Tensions have been growing between the countries,
including a recent incident in which Tehran summoned the Azerbaijani
ambassador to protest alleged Israeli intelligence activity in
Azerbaijan.]
Western and Russian agents are deployed, and Orujlu estimates that
thousands of Iranian agents operate in Azerbaijan.
Orujlu says Iran’s intelligence is very active in Azerbaijan, which he
says acts as a “buffer zone” between Iran and Russia, as well as Iran
and the West.
Blossoming Ties To Israel
According to Aliyev, the journalist, it’s long been an open secret
that Azerbaijan serves a purpose for Iran and for the West – including
Israel, which also has intelligence agents on the ground in the
country.
“Iran is trying to find out what are the military operations of the
Western states intended for Iran,” Aliyev says. “And of course Israel
and the West [are] trying to use the opportunity of being here to find
out what is happening in Iran,” he says.
In fact, the Iranian state-run media recently reported that Tehran had
summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador to protest alleged Israeli
intelligence activity there, including allowing Israel to launch
activities against Iran from Azerbaijani territory and aiding in the
escape of Israeli agents Tehran says were behind the recent killings
of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Israel’s relationship with Azerbaijan has blossomed in recent years,
fueled by lucrative military and business deals. Israel buys 30
percent of its oil from Azerbaijan, and recently awarded a lucrative
gas-drilling contract off its Mediterranean coast to an Azerbaijani
firm.
Orujlu says that the ties between Azerbaijanis and Israel have grown
so deep, that in the event of an Israeli military strike on Iran’s
nuclear facilities, many Azerbaijanis would side with Israel.
But some feel that all that could change in the case of an actual war,
especially if it included attacks on areas inhabited by Iran’s ethnic
Azeris.
Ilgar Ibrahimoglu is imam of the Juma mosque in a suburb of Baku with
a large Iranian population. He says that phobia of Iran has been
increasingly encouraged in Azerbaijan.
“Every Azerbaijani,” he says, “understands that this war will affect
Azeris in Iran and holy sites there.”