Summary
Gayane Kh. Chobanyan
Soon after its independence Azerbaijan changed its foreign policy course towards the Islamic world. Making religious accents in Nagorno-Karabakh war Azerbaijani government was trying to get military aid from Muslim countries and Islamic terrorist organizations. In 1991-1994 mercenaries who were enlisted in different countries especially from Afganistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, Turkey and Iran, fought on the side of Azerbaijanis in the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani authorities still deny the involvement of mojahideen in the military actions, but it is a proved fact, which is based on the bodies of killed people during the war, the religious literature, documents in their traditional languages, and other proves found by the defense forces of Nagorno-Karabakh. After the war the majority of the mojahideen left Karabakh front and were involved in other regional conflicts where they used the experience from Nagorno-Karabakh war. The territory of Azerbaijan had been often used to supply weapons, financial, material and other means and fighters to Chechnya and Dagestan. The other part of mojahideen that stayed in Azerbaijan influenced on establishment of radical Islam structures and branches of international Islamic terrorist organizations, wհich used the territory of Azerbaijan as a strong hold of terrorist network.