Participants in preparation of pro-Iranian coup detained in Azerbaijan

The power structures of Azerbaijan detained a group of six people on the territory of the state. According to investigators, these people planned to organize armed riots in order to seize power in the country and create a religious state under Sharia law. It was established that all the detainees were connected with the Iranian special services. This is stated in the final joint statement of three Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies at once – the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan.

“It has been established that Rufulla Akhundzadeh and Bakhtiyar Bayramov, who live in Iran and cooperate with the Iranian special services, attracted Arif Dzhumshudov, a resident of the Terter region, to cooperation and instructed him to create a “resistance group” to organize armed unrest on the territory of Azerbaijan, seize power, forcibly change the constitutional order of the country and creation of a religious state governed by Sharia law,” the security forces said in a statement.

Terter region is an administrative unit of the state of Azerbaijan, its center is the city of Terter. According to 2020 data, the population of this region exceeds 104 thousand people. Part of the Terter region is currently controlled by the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

According to the investigation, a resident of this region, Dzhumshudov, attracted several of his acquaintances to cooperate. The security forces also claim that the defendants promoted Iran and religious radicalism on social media and at various ceremonies. In addition, according to the operatives, they carried out “missions received from abroad to undermine the traditions of tolerance that had formed in Azerbaijan.” It was also established that members of the criminal group organized the sale of drugs from Iran, and the proceeds from this were used to promote radicalism and finance other subversive activities in the country.

Previously political scientist Suzdaltsev from the National Research University Higher School of Economics told MK that Russia needs to prepare for the evacuation of the military base of their Armenia due to the aggravation of relations between this country and Azerbaijan on the basis of the unresolved conflict over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.