AZERBAIJAN: SUMGAYIT BECOMES FONT OF SYRIA-BOUND JIHADISTS
EurasiaNet.org
May 5 2014
May 5, 2014 – 1:26pm, by Shahin Abbasov
Known for its Soviet-era chemical and glass factories, now mostly
defunct, Sumgayit has become the center for Azerbaijani citizens
volunteering to fight in Syria. Various media reports put the number
of Azerbaijani fighters there at 200 to 400, with more than 100
killed. (Photo: Rena Effendi)
There are few outward signs to indicate the Azerbaijani city of
Sumgayit, a Soviet-era hub for the petro-chemical industry, is a
seedbed of Islamic militancy. Shops and restaurants sell alcohol,
and residents dress casually.
But, according to police, this smokestack city of 400,000, some
35 kilometers outside of the capital, Baku, is a major source of
Azerbaijani Muslims who go to fight, and often die, in Syria’s
civil war.
Thirty-six-year-old Sumgayit resident Rasul (last name withheld at
his request), knows firsthand the reality of Sumgayit’s reputation. In
2013, his younger brother, Zaur, then 32, was killed along with five
other people during a Syrian army attack on rebels near Aleppo. News
of Zaur’s death reached Rasul via an Azerbaijani TV report, which
showed his ID card and identified him as the commander of a group of
international mercenaries.
Still struggling to make sense of it all, Rasul termed Zaur’s actions
“wrong.”
“Zaur worked in a state-owned electricity company in Sumgayit,
never had problems with the police,” he said, sitting in his poorly
furnished apartment in a Sumgayit high-rise. “I would never suspect
that he had joined any radical religious group.”
His brother, Rasul said, began observing the Islamic prayer ritual in
2009. In late 2012, he disappeared. “He took some personal belongings
and left. Even his wife did not know where he was. We asked for the
police to help, but, after some time, he called me and asked not to
worry and said that he is working in Turkey,” Rasul recounted.
These days, along with his own two children, Rasul, who runs a small
retail business, looks after the three sons of his slain brother.
He told EurasiaNet.org that he has experienced problems with
Azerbaijani authorities because of his brother’s actions in Syria,
but declined to elaborate. No precise data exists for the number of
Azerbaijanis who have fought, or are still fighting in Syria, most
often with Islamic rebels against forces loyal to President Bashar
al-Assad. Citing secondhand sources, local media claim the number of
militants in Syria is anywhere from 200 to 400, with more than 100
killed in action.
With more frequent press coverage of Azerbaijani citizens allegedly
participating in the Syrian conflict, police are now paying closer
attention to this trend. In the past five years, “about 40” Sumgayit
residents have left Azerbaijan for Syria and Afghanistan, and almost
half of them have been killed, according to a survey of Azerbaijani
police departments by the local news agency Vesti.az.
Another 230 city residents are “under police control,” or being
watched, as potential mercenaries. Out of 40 police departments queried
by Vesti.az across the country, Sumgayit’s numbers were the highest,
in terms of the militant ratio to the general population. The sources
for the police information were not specified.
Sumgayit recently has emerged as a center for Salafism, a form of Sunni
Islam that advocates a return to Islam’s earliest practices. In late
2013, an armed clash between alleged Salafis and a group of Salafi
dissidents called Kharidjis left four people wounded and 16 detained.
Arif Yunusov, a Baku-based author of several books on the role of
Islam in Azerbaijan disputes the claim that Sumgayit sends the most
Islamic radicals to fight in Syria. Individuals “from various cities
and regions” in Azerbaijan make up the roster, he commented in a late
April interview done shortly before he was detained by authorities
and hospitalized because of a heart condition.
Towns in northern Azerbaijan near the border with Russia’s Dagestan,
a region long troubled by Islamic militancy, also are a frequent
source of Syria-bound jihadists, according to police information
given to the Azerbaijani news site Vesti.az.
What makes Sumgayit stand out is its community of Kharidjis, who,
contrary to other Azerbaijani Salafis, “believe that they should
not obey secular rules and must participate in jihad worldwide,”
according to Yunusov. Kharidjis recruit candidates via local mosques
and teahouses.
The city’s demographics play a role, too, he continued.
Built in the late 1940s, Sumgayit long ranked as a city of migrant,
relatively uneducated blue-collar workers. It did not have a mosque
until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But at that point, other
upheavals came into play – the closure of many of the city’s industrial
plants and, amid the war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh
territory, Sumgayit’s transformation into a high-tension hub for
refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.
“All these factors created a kind of vacuum which was successfully
used by religious radicals,” Yunusov said.
Meanwhile, not only men, but also women from Sumgayit are being
encouraged to go to Syria, locals and media report. In April,
anonymous leaflets appeared throughout the city urging females to
conduct “marriage jihad” (jihad al nikah) – provide sexual services
to mujahidin — for entrance into heaven.
Police since have collected the leaflets, which were dismissed by
one Baku-based Salafi imam as “a provocation against those fighting
in Syria.”
Other than heightened police surveillance, official measures to stop
the outflow of would-be jihadists seem limited to stiffer penalties for
fighting as a mercenary. In March, prison terms for such activities
were nearly doubled to five to 11 years, while those who recruit or
sponsor mercenaries face a nine to 15-year jail sentence.
The punishments have had one effect – making those who have waged
jihad in Syria keep a low profile. Rumors circulate in Sumgayit about
supposed “mujahidin” who have returned home after fighting in Syria,
but none could be identified and asked to comment on their experiences.
Editor’s note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based
in Baku.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68341