The Islamic Party of Azerbaijan ( az, Azərbaycan İslam Partiyası or ''AİP'') is a banned Islamist party in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

. The party was founded in 1991 in the town of

Nardaran Nardaran is a settlement and municipality on the Abşeron Peninsula in Baku, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 8,300. Located 25 kilometers northeast of central Baku, it is politically part of the Baku city-subdivision and treated as a suburb. ...

, which lies northeast of the capital Baku on the

Absheron Peninsula The Absheron Peninsula ( az, Abşeron yarımadası) is a peninsula in Azerbaijan. It is the location of Baku, the biggest and the most populous city of the country, and also the Baku metropolitan area, with its satellite cities Sumqayit and Khyrd ...

, and is a lone stronghold of conservative Shi'a Islam in staunchly secular and religiously progressive Azerbaijan, and was officially registered in 1992. Its registration, however, was cancelled in 1995, and has not been reinstated since. It advocated stronger ties with

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and even proclaiming the state of Azerbaijan into an Islamic Republic as it rejected the ideas of

pan-Turkism Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim bei ...

, regarding them as dangerous and utopian. Nevertheless it was also an Azerbaijani nationalist party and was known for its fiery nationalist and anti-Armenian rhetoric and frequently advocated a military solution to the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...

which is partly under Armenian occupation. It was fiercely opposed and advocated a ban of

proselytism Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invol ...

and Christian

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

activities. The party was also anti-US, anti-Zionist and

anti-EU Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

and supported Hezbollah and its leader

Hassan Nasrallah Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel De ...

. The leader of the party was . In 1995, the government of Azerbaijan accused the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan of being covertly financed by Iran, which Azerbaijan regarded as an interference in its domestic affairs, and which is illegal under Azerbaijani law. Therefore, the leaders of the party were arrested and the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan was officially banned. Subsequently under the updated secular laws of Azerbaijan, Islamist parties and the formation of Islamist parties were banned. On 7 October 2011, Samadov was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of attempts to set up a criminal group to plan terror attacks and to overthrow the government.Azeri Islamic party leader sentenced to 12 years in jail
AzerNews.az

References

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* 1991 establishments in Azerbaijan 1995 disestablishments in Azerbaijan Banned Islamist parties Defunct political parties in Azerbaijan Islamic organizations based in Azerbaijan Islamic political parties Political parties disestablished in 1995 Political parties established in 1991 {{Azerbaijan-party-stub

See also

References

External links