by Zaur Shiriyev
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.
In 2013, Azerbaijan relaxed restrictions, in effect an informal ban, on religious figures linked to Iran on preaching in public. This tactical embrace of Shiism was aimed at stemming the flow of Azerbaijanis joining ISIS and fighting in Syria and Iraq, a trend that Baku believed was inspired by a rise in hardline Sunni tendencies.
But 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.
In response, in early October, the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of Azerbaijan proposed legislation that would prohibit children from taking part in Ashura commemorations and similar religious rituals. The legislation has not yet been voted on.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appeared to publicly criticize the proposed law during a November meeting with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Tehran. “We should appreciate this great opportunity and the glorious mourning ceremonies of the Shiites in Azerbaijan, because they will strengthen the identity of Azerbaijan’s nation and country,” Khamenei said.
Azerbaijan, however, has been wary of publicly calling out Tehran. The two countries have had uneasy relations since Azerbaijan gained independence in 1991, as Baku fears Iran’s religious influence and Tehran is concerned about Azerbaijan’s potential influence over the large ethnic Azeri population in northern Iran. Each also has close ties to the other’s biggest enemy: Azerbaijan with Israel, and Iran with Armenia.
Since President Hassan Rouhani’s coming to power in 2013, Iran has been forced to recalibrate its relations with Azerbaijan. Official bilateral contact has increased dramatically since then, with the two sides signing more than 20 cooperation agreements in the economic sphere.
In one project that would have been unimaginable before 2013, Azerbaijan has provided a loan to build a 100-mile stretch of a railroad in Iran, from the Azerbaijani border to the city of Rasht, part of the North-South Transport Corridor. Baku hopes that the initiative can derail plans to develop rail links between Iran and Armenia.
The government has not publicly claimed that Iran influenced the Ashura commemorations, but one official, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Gunduz Ismayilov, pointedly said that “there are some forces in Azerbaijan who seek to bring political elements into Ashura commemorations in the country.”
In early December, the government-connected website Haqqin.Az published an article accusing Iran of trying to recruit Shia pilgrims visiting the holy city of Karbala in Iraq. The article claimed that 30,000 Azerbaijanis visited Karbala for Ashura this year, an increase of 33 percent over the previous year.
The article also alleged that the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and its associated Shiite militia, “Hasdi Shabi,” have recruited Azerbaijanis to gather intelligence and conduct anti-government propaganda against Baku. Some of the propaganda, the article claimed, was focused on Nardaran, a center of Shia conservativism in Azerbaijan.
In 2015, security services carried out a series of raids in Nardaran, arresting religious activists they accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Azerbaijan’s authorities also believed that Nardaran’s religious leaders were under Iranian influence, and that after the operation, that influence has been curbed. The Iranian propaganda, the Haqqin article said, criticized the Nardaran events as an “infringement of rights and persecution of Shias.”
Some in Baku question the government’s focus on Iran’s influence over it Shia. “It would be too easy to claim that all the people who went to Iraq for holy visits end up under Iran’s influence,” one mid-level government official told EurasiaNet.org on condition of anonymity. The official added, though, that “falling under the influences of foreign intelligence is much easier there than anywhere else.”
The official suggested that more Azerbaijanis visiting Iraq and Syria are recruited by ISIS: The number of Azerbaijanis joining ISIS has been on the rise in the last two years, and last year 151 people were stripped of their Azerbaijani citizenship for fighting in the ranks of terrorist organizations. “This is the main threat,” the official said.
Another article, by a government think tank, the Center for Strategic Studies (SAM), also appeared to speak to Baku’s concerns about Iran, this time about its relations with Armenia.
The unsigned article raised eyebrows among Baku’s foreign policy community, both for its tone – reading more like an official statement than a piece of analysis – and its language. It was published in Azerbaijani, instead of Russian and English, suggesting the topic wasn’t SAM’s usual international audience, but a message to the Iranian government via its embassy in Baku.
The piece criticized increasing contacts between Tehran and the de facto authorities of Nagorno Karabakh, whom Baku regards as a separatist regime on Azerbaijani territory. It described recent appearances of Karabakh officials in the Iranian media and the publication of two books on Karabakh. And it highlighted a November 15 conference in Iran devoted to Karabakh. “The Iranian International Studies Association, one of the founders of which is the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarifi, has created a kind of platform for the conduct of anti-Azerbaijani propaganda by Armenian scientists,” the author wrote.
While Azerbaijani criticism of Iran-Armenia relations is not new, it appears to have reached a new level, one analyst with close links to the Azerbaijani government told EurasiaNet.org, speaking on condition of anonymity. Baku is unsure why Tehran is emphasizing ties with the de facto Karabakh authorities, and fears that it will serve to legitimize them in Iran and create sympathy for them, which Baku regards as a threat to its interests, the analyst said.
Photo: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (C) meets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in March 2017
Zaur Shiriyev is an Academy Associate at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Republished, with permission, from .
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 24
Trend:
December 24 is the birthday of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Aliyev was born in Baku on December 24, 1961. He entered the Moscow State University of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1977 and graduated it in 1982. Upon his graduation, Ilham Aliyev continued his education as a postgraduate student at MGIMO and received a Ph.D. degree in history in 1985.
He taught at the Moscow State University of International Relations between 1985-1990. From 1991 to 1994 Ilham Aliyev was involved in the private business sector, heading a number of industrial-commercial enterprises.
He was vice president, and later the first vice president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) from 1994 to 2003. He was actively involved in the implementation of Heydar Aliyev’s oil strategy.
Ilham Aliyev was twice elected to the Milli Majlis (parliament) of Azerbaijan in 1995 and 2000, and resigned from his post in 2003 due to his appointment to the post of prime minister.
In addition to his existing responsibilities, Ilham Aliyev has been presiding over the National Olympic Committee since 1997. Ilham Aliyev was re-elected to this post in 2016.
He has been elected deputy chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party in 1999, first deputy chairman in 2001, and party chairman in 2005.
He headed the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 2001 to 2003.
Ilham Aliyev was elected deputy chairman of PACE and member of the PACE bureau in January 2003.
Ilham Aliyev was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan after his candidacy was approved by the country’s parliament August 4, 2003.
Ilham Aliyev was elected president of Azerbaijan on October 15, 2003, gaining over 76 percent of total votes. He assumed his post on October 31, 2003. He was re-elected as president for the second term, gaining 88 percent of votes in the elections, held on October 15, 2008. He assumed the duties of the presidency on October 24, 2008.
On October 9, 2013, Ilham Aliyev was elected for a third term by an overwhelming majority of voters (84.54 percent) for the next five years. He assumed the post on October 19, 2013.
The Azerbaijani people made their choice, voting for political stability, prosperity and sustainable social and economic development.
The unity of the Azerbaijani people and the country’s president was once again demonstrated in 2016. Thanks to the care and attention given to the army building by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Ilham Aliyev, today Azerbaijan has the strongest army in the region.
The valiant Azerbaijani army under the leadership of the Supreme Commander of the country’s Armed Forces, President Ilham Aliyev gave a rebuff to Armenian aggressors in April 2016.
The Azerbaijani army liberated a large area occupied by Armenia, thus opening another glorious page in the country’s history. That demonstrated the world the power and aspiration of Azerbaijan for returning the occupied territories at any cost.
These events once and forever changed the recent situation and proved the unacceptability of the status quo in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
By having voted in a referendum on amendments to the country’s constitution in September 2016, the Azerbaijani people supported President Aliyev’s initiative, which became a guarantee of the country’s political and economic stability.
The act of referendum signed by the Azerbaijani president envisaged amendments to 29 items of the constitution. Results of the referendum reflected the Azerbaijani people’s will. The Azerbaijani people voted for each of 29 items, which became the beginning of a new stage of Azerbaijan’s development.
The year of 2017 marked a new stage in the development of the Azerbaijani economy, particularly, the non-oil sector. The 12 Strategic Road Maps adopted by President Ilham Aliyev in late 2016 laid the foundation for a new strategy of the country’s economic development until 2025 and beyond, which are designed to ensure the economy’s competitiveness and social welfare on the basis of sustainable economic development in Azerbaijan.
The year of 2017 saw such significant events as the beginning of negotiations on a comprehensive cooperation agreement with the European Union, the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is the shortest and most reliable way for cargo transportation between Europe and Asia the extension of the “Contract of the Century” until 2050, the successful continuation of construction of the Southern Gas Corridor, including the TANAP and TAP pipelines that will ensure energy security of Europe,. All these were the result of the far-sighted policy of President Ilham Aliyev.
As part of the announcement of 2017 as the “Year of Islamic Solidarity” by President Aliyev, a number of major international events were held in the country, including the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games.
The bright success of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy was the recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty of member countries in the statement adopted on the results of the Eastern Partnership Summit of the European Union. The latest report on the “EU common foreign and security policy” by the European Parliament, dated December 13, has become a logical continuation of the process fixed in the joint statement of the Eastern Partnership Summit, held in Brussels on November 24 and which President Aliyev called as the diplomatic success of Azerbaijan.
The European Parliament confirmed for the first time its commitment to the EU’s commitments to support the territorial integrity of all the Eastern Partnership countries within their internationally recognized borders.
The staff of Trend Agency sincerely congratulates President Aliyev on his birthday!
Baltic Legal Updates, Latvia
Friday
Inese Lībiņa-Egnere to Deputy Speaker of Armenian parliament:
Strengthening parliamentary cooperation important for both countries
Riga: The Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia has issued the
following media release:
On Friday, 15 December, Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Deputy Speaker of the
Saeima, met at the Saeima with Eduard Sharamazanov, Deputy Speaker of
the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. Lībiņa-Egnere noted
that 2017 is a symbolic year in the Latvian-Armenian cooperation as it
marks the 25th anniversary since diplomatic relations were established
between the two countries. “This is a good time to look back on what
has been achieved so far and energise our parliamentary cooperation.
It plays a special role in the context of strengthening political
dialogue and sharing experiences,” Deputy Speaker Lībiņa-Egnere told
her Armenian counterpart.
Andrejs Klementjevs, Secretary of the Saeima, also participated in the
meeting of the two Deputy Speakers.
Lībiņa-Egnere and Sharamazanov discussed the role parliamentary
contacts play in promoting closer cooperation in other areas. The
Deputy Speaker of the Armenian parliament thanked the Latvian
representatives for their efforts in strengthening parliamentary
relations between the two countries and invited them to visit Armenia.
The Latvian side praised the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership
Agreement between the European Union and Armenia, signed on 24
November. Deputy Speaker Sharamazanov emphasised that the Agreement
attests to Armenia’s loyalty to the values of democracy and human
rights, and reflects the institutional reforms carried out so far.
Lībiņa-Egnere and Klementjevs spoke with Sharamazanov about current
domestic events in both countries, as well as developments in the
region. As regards the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Latvian side
emphasised their support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict
based on international law. The Minsk Group is the only format for
seeking a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Latvian side
stated.
Deputy Speaker Sharamazanov is accompanied on his visit by two MP of
the Armenian parliament: Samvel Farmanyan and Suren Manukyan.
During their visit to the Saeima, the Armenian delegation also met
with Lolita Čigāne, Chair of the European Affairs Committee of the
Saeima, and members of the Committee, as well as Sergejs Potapkins,
Chair of the Saeima Group for Interparliamentary Relations with
Armenia, and the members of the Group.
- 17:34 | December 19,2017 | Politics
- Armenian:
-
Today, at the extraordinary session of the National Assembly during the discussion of the draft package of amendments to the “Family Code” and the accompanying laws, Gevorg Gorgisyan, the secretary of the Yelk (Way Out) faction, told Suren Krmoyan, Deputy Justice Minister, that there had been a “fatherhood” formulation besides maternity and childhood, but then it was removed. “Does this mean that we do not need fatherhood anymore? Besides, racial discrimination and so on, are prohibited while choosing a partner. So, by the law, we tell people how to choose a husband or a wife.”
Suren Krmoyan said,”We match these formulations to the Constitution, and it does not mean that fatherhood is omitted. And, speaking about racial discrimination, it also comes from the Constitution. We do not prohibit choice, but discrimination.”
Gevorg Gorgisyan said, “Suppose I am a black man who proposes a woman, and she refuses to marry me. Can I use this law and accuse her of refusing to marry me because of my race?”
“Let me mention that Mr. Gorgisyan says this theoretically. He had proposed at his time and has a family,” added Eduard Sharmazanov, the NA Speaker.
Suren Krmoyan referred to the Constitution, saying, “It is fixed in the Constitution that both men and women, when their marriage time comes, can have a family, based on mutual agreement. In this case the norm does not work. It works only if there is a discrimination out of the family, for example, registration, attitude, etc.”
“This has anti-racism coloring. No, not the thing you said. No to racism,” said Eduard Sharmazanov.
- 10:24 | December 20,2017 | Official
- Armenian:
- Rus
-
The Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies informs that on December 20 at 09:30, there is snow on the highways of Aparan, Aragats, Artik, Spitak, Sevan and Yeghegnadzor regions.
There is dense fog on the roads of Masis and Artashat, visibility is 30-40m.
All the interstate and republican roads are open.
However, this virtuous cycle is
now over: the parties are now showing some political resistance and
asking for a wider margin of interpretation. Some countries have adopted
measures to restore their judicial sovereignty in order to not enforce
all judgments (Russia, Italy); others think about leaving the Convention
(Great Britain in the aftermath of Brexit). In general, a decision of a
foreign or international court cannot be enforced on the territory of a
state without the consent of its judicial or political authorities. The
ECHR judgments are legally binding but the Committee of Ministers of
the CoE, which monitors the enforcement of judgments, cannot take
measures of coercive nature. For an example, Turkey refused so far to
enforce the judgment in the interstate case Cyprus vs. Turkey (2014).
Second, since the alleged coup in July 2016, the Turkish Grand
National Assembly approved on July 21 a State of Emergency as
provisioned in its Constitution and informed the Council of Europe (CoE)
and the ECHR that measures taken may involve derogation from its
obligations under the Convention, as allowed in Article 15. The
declaration has since been renewed every three months and approved by
the Committee of Ministers of the CoE.
Third, Turkey has been the best “client” of the ECHR since 1959,
and they have developed a working relationship with the court. Turkey
contributes 10 percent of the total budget of the ECHR. The economic
factor is far from marginal in this relationship. Moreover, of the
ECHR’s 672 Registry staff members, 44 are Turkish nationals. The ECHR
actually fears a withdrawal of Turkey from its system.
As far as admissibility of cases is concerned, the filter is
composed of one judge, when it concerns the rule of procedure, or by a
committee of three judges or a Chamber, when it concerns the merits. The
procedural admissibility is very formal, and the exhaustion of domestic
remedies is the first fundamental criteria. There may be special
circumstances dispensing the applicant from the obligation to avail
himself or herself of the domestic remedies available. One such factor
may be that of national authorities remaining totally passive in the
face of serious allegations of misconduct or infliction of harm by state
agents, for example where they have failed to undertake investigations
or offer assistance. On the contrary, mere doubts on the part
of the applicant regarding the effectiveness of a particular remedy will
not absolve him or her from the obligation to try it (cf. ECHR Practical Guide on Admissibility Criteria). The alleged political considerations or “deals” don’t intervene at this stage.
In 2016, 36,579 applications were declared inadmissible, among
which the single-judge formation accounted for 30,998 cases. As regards
Turkey, there has been an enormous flow of individual applications in
2017: 16,851 have been declared inadmissible by a single judge for
procedural reasons. Thus, the Sis properties’ case was a mere drop in
the ocean.
Beyond the political chaos in Turkey, one must admit that the
substantiation of Antelias application, whatever creative and complex
the engineering is, arrives at an impasse in Turkey and in Strasbourg.
On the one side, the Constitutional Court admits cases related to facts
that occurred after 2012 (date of the institution of individual
complaints mechanism), and on the other, the legal team’s reasoning
implies the interpretation of the Treaty of Lausanne into Turkish law
(only a national court can do that), before claiming the alleged
violation of right to property in light of the Convention’s First
Protocol. If the first stage is not completed, one could hardly imagine
the ECHR accepting to review such a case, where it involves an
interpretation of Turkish laws. It was tempting to give it a try and
force its fate at ECHR to gain time. But this is not a race.
People: Raffi Kalfayan
The road to justice for the historical
crimes committed against the Armenians will be long and is full of
pitfalls, mainly due to the elapsed time, the articulation of different
bodies of laws, and the negative attitude of Turkey. The announcement of
diverse Armenian initiatives indicates that the Armenian Party is on
the right track, and the continuous impulse and leadership of spiritual
and mainstream institutions will help. However, it does not serve the
case to entertain false hopes and to voice exaggerate comments on the
altar of communication.
(Philippe Raffi Kalfayan, a resident of Paris, France, is a lawyer and accredited expert of the Council of Europe since 2003.)