IRAN-AZERBAIJAN SPAT OVER JOURNALIST MURDER
Azerbaijan’s relations with neighboring Iran have taken a turn for the worse due to growing tension around Iran’s nuclear program. The recent death of writer Rafiq Tagi, who Iranian media has termed a “Salman Rushdie of Azerbaijan”, has fuelled mutual anti-propaganda between two countries.
The 61 year old Tagi was known for his vocal criticism of the Azerbaijani government’s policy on Iran, the Iranian political regime and what he viewed as the negative impact of the popularization of Islam on his country's development. He was stabbed six times in downtown Baku on November 19 by an unknown assailant, and died four days later in a Baku hospital. In a hospital interview with RFE/RL shortly before his death, Tagi claimed that the attack constituted revenge by unidentified Iranian agents and Muslim fundamentalists for two of his articles.
The articles “Europe and we” and “Iran and globalization,” published in the Sanat newspaper in 2006, featured a comparison of European and Islamic traditions, and claimed that Islam had hindered the development of Azerbaijan and other Muslim states. The article, which also included some references perceived as critical of the Prophet Muhammad, fueled outrage among devout Muslims in Azerbaijan and Iran. In 2007 Tagi faced criminal charges for inciting national, racial and religious enmity, and an Azerbaijani court sentenced him to three years imprisonment.
The official response did not satisfy conservative Muslims. In response, several Iranian ayatollahs issued fatwas that sentenced him to death. He nevertheless continued to publish his poems and essays. His last essay on November 10 for kulis.az covered Iran and globalization, where he called modern Iran “a myth that is easy to break” and claimed that “threats from Iran against the independent Republic of Azerbaijan sound ridiculous.”
Following the news about Tagi’s death, a statement on the website of the late Iranian Ayatollah Fazil Lankarani, thanked God that “a hand of revenge was found among the honorable Muslims of Azerbaijan and sent the evil individual who insulted Islamic sanctuaries and Allah’s messenger to hell.” Lankarani issued one of the fatwas against Tagi, and the statement was signed by his son, Ayatollah Haji Sheykh Muhammad Javad Lankarani. Along with the earlier fatwas, the statement prompted many Azerbaijanis to believe that Iran is a prime suspect in the attack on Tagi. Before his death, Tagi himself made a statement while in hospital not ruling out the possibility that Iranian agents were involvement in the attempt on his life. Noone has yet been arrested or charged with the assault.
The Iranian Embassy to Azerbaijan issued a statement rejecting “the groundless and untruthful claims” that the attempt on Tagi’s life was linked to Iran. “At the same time, we consider this act to be a provocation of the Zionist-American forces aimed at damaging the strategic relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. We consider such attempts to be empty and futile,” the statement said.
One expert on Islamic theology dismisses the belief that the attack is linked to Ayatollah Lankarani’s fatwa. “Tagi was here for five years after that fatwa. He was walking to work and back, using public transportation, and nobody thought of implementing the sentence while Fazil Lankarani … was alive,” said Elchin Askerov, chair of the International Eurasian Council within the Islamic Youth Conference Forum for Cooperation and Dialogue, in an interview with RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani service. Askerov similarly dismissed the notion that an Azerbaijani believer could have carried out the attack. “An Azerbaijani Muslim is not [a] backward, radical. We have to wait for the result of the investigation.”
Eldar Sultanov, spokesperson of the State prosecutor’s office, told reporters that his office is aware of Ayatollah Lankarani’s statement and will respond if necessary.
Local rights groups have issued statements saying the attempt on Tagi should be investigated as a terror attack on society. The police have launched a criminal investigation for intentionally inflicting serious damage to someone’s health. International media watchdogs, including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have issued statements calling for a thorough and fair investigation to be conducted into the writer's death. Reporters Without Borders expressed shock on November 23 at Tagi's death and urged investigators “to seriously consider the possibility that the attack was linked to his work as a journalist”.
The Azerbaijani government is now seeking to mend its relations with Iran and a group of officials has been sent to Teheran. Since independence, Azerbaijan has sought to maintain close, friendly and good-neighborly relations with Iran and continues to pursue this policy today, according to Ali Hasanov, head of the Public and Political Affairs Committee in the Presidential Administration.
He underlined that statements from Iranian and Azerbaijani individuals perceived as anti-Azerbaijani or anti-Iranian must be met with tolerance, “but if they turn into state politics, they should be suppressed. The main purpose of my visit was to prevent the conversion of statements by individuals, institutions and media into a common tendency, as well as to prevent this tendency from influencing our inter-governmental relations.”
Hasanov said that the main concern is that “some circles in Iran interfere in the internal life of Azerbaijan,” in particular through media. In order to prevent the intrusion of Iranian TV broadcasts into Azerbaijan, Baku will sign a special protocol with Teheran and enhance the protection of its national TV broadcasting.
