Former Azerbaijani Security Minister's Role in Arming Wahhabis in His Country

Moderate Shiites should be increasingly wary of direct confrontation with armed extremist Wahhabi movements.

Official govt. photo of Eldar Mahmudov Courtesy: azadliq.org

(SALEM, Ore.) - A security official who wished to remain anonymous, claimed in an interview with the European Radio Liberty, that Eldar Mahmudov, the ousted security minister of Azerbaijan, has undertaken the illegal importation of weapons from Turkey as supported by Israel and funded by Saudi Arabia in order to arm Northern Caucasus Wahhabi forces.

According to Sizinyol news agency reports, these weapons have been transferred by Azal flights from Turkey to Azerbaijan, distributed among Wahhabi extremist groups and smuggled to Dagestan. On the other hand, more than four hundred Azerbaijani Wahhabi forces are fighting in Syria and Iraq under Eldar Mahmoudov's silence that shows coordination with Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The main reason for Eldar Mahmoudov's dismissal from the Azerbaijani security ministry and the dissolution of this department is that Putin has provided Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, with documentary information about this problem.

Eldar Mahmoudov's dismissal and that of two hundred of his colleagues was the biggest threat to the rule of Ilham Aliyev, whose monarchical authority was so shaken that his security councilors considered creating a false propagandistic crisis like the Nardaran events, to magnify the risk of moderate Shiites in avoiding direct confrontation with armed extremist Wahhabi movements.