CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 148

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
Islamic Revival in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan
Historical background
Azerbaijan rediscovered Islam after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In
search of the new identity, Azerbaijanis appealed to Islam, which was sup-
pressed under the Soviet legacy. 1 The collapse of the Soviet Union pushed
for the creation of power vacuum and the question of what kind of entity
Azerbaijan should become arose. Tackling this question one of the options
was the Iranian pattern; namely, the promotion of Islamic revolution and
the development of theocratic state. 2 The other option was Turkey’s scenar-
io due to the “Azerbaijanis ethnic and language closeness to Turks”. 3 While
Azerbaijanis were more close to Iran from the religious perspective, they
shared the same culture and history with Turkey. 4 Inspired by Turkey’s sec-
ular legacy, the same pro-Western and pro-Turkic system 5 was embraced in
Azerbaijan, which played the role of consolidating ideology. 6
Notwithstanding the embracement of Turkey’s secular ideology, other
countries, such as Arab Gulf Countries and Iran, saw the independence
of Azerbaijan as an opportunity to spread their religion and infl uence. 7
Therefore, not to lose its position, Iran started to strongly support Islamic
revival of Shia population in Azerbaijan and their religious feeling with
the aim to promote separatist trends in a newly independent state. 8
One factor promoting Islamic Revival was Azerbaijanis response to
enforced atheism by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union left Azerbaijan-
is with ideological gap, which prompted Azerbaijanis to refer to Islam. 9
Moreover, even the collapse of the Soviet Union did not stop the uncertain-
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Ansgar Jodicke, “Shia Groups and Iranian religious Infl uence in Azerbaijan: the Impact of
Trans-boundary Religious ties on national Religious Policy,” Eurasian Geography and Eco-
nomic, (2017); Arzu Geybulla, “Radical Islam or Government Paranoia in Azerbaijan?,”
Caucasus Analytical Digest, 93:1, (2017): 9-11; Emmanuel Karagiannis. “Political Islam in
the Former Soviet Union: Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan compared,” Dynamics of Asymmetric
Confl ict: Pathways Toward Terrorism and genocide, 3:1, (2010): 46-61.
Ruff at Sattarov, Islam, State, and Society in Independent Azerbaijan: Between Historical
Legacy and Post-Soviet Reality with Special Reference to Baku and its Environs, (Wies-
baden: Reichert Verlad, 2009), 97.
Ibid., 98; Igor Rotar, “Under the Green Banner: Islamic Radicals in Russia and the Former
Soviet Union,” Religion, State and Society, 30:2, (2010), 89-153.
Rena Salayeva and Michael Baranick, “Addressing Terrorist Threats in Azerbaijan and Uz-
bekistan: Winning Hearts and Minds,” The Cornwallis Group, (2018), http://www.ismor.
com/cornwallis/cornwallis_2005/CX_2005_11-Baranick-CX-July%2012.pdf (accessed May
27, 2018)
Jodicke, Shia Groups and Iranian religious Infl uence in Azerbaijan.
Arzu Geybullayeva, “Is Azerbaijan Becoming a Hub of Radical Islam?”European Stabili-
ty Initiative, (2018); Salayeva and Baranick, Addressing Terrorist Threats in Azerbaijan and
Uzbekistan.
Geybullayeva, “Is Azerbaijan Becoming a Hub of Radical Islam?”; Bogdan Nedea, Sahib
Jafarov and Orhan Mamadov, “Radical Islam in Azerbaijan,” Researchgate, (2012).
Sattarov, Islam, State, and Society in Independent Azerbaijan, 10.
William Maley, The Potential for Terrorism within the Soviet Union in the 21st Century,”
Terrorism, 13:1, (2008), 53-64; Jodicke, Shia Groups and Iranian religious Infl uence in
Azerbaijan; Geybulla, “Radical Islam or Government Paranoia in Azerbaijan”, 9-11.
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