Azerbaijan: National Security Officials Announce Round-Up of Suspected Terrorists

Authorities in Azerbaijan say they have netted 140 suspected members of extremist organizations in a sting operation that lasted for several months.

National Security Minister Eldar Makhmudov announced on March 30 that most of those taken into custody have suspected links to the al Qaeda terrorist network. Makhmudov's statement raised skeptical eyebrows among government critics. Zardusht Alizade, a political scientist in Baku, was quoted by the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta as saying President Ilham Aliyev's administration in Baku is exaggerating the al Qaeda threat in order to assuage international concerns over deteriorating democratic conditions in the country. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Makhmudov claimed that Azerbaijani security agents had uncovered nine terrorist groups that plotted a "forcible takeover of power." The alleged terrorists planned to reverse Azerbaijan's development "as a secular state," the Regnum news agency quoted the minister as saying.