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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

The Caucasus region is becoming a convenient place for jihadists

Jul 1, 2011 1:00 am By Joseph Zaalishvili

Based on the geopolitical location of the Caucasus, the Christian states Georgia and Armenia are key nations opposing the advance of the global jihad. This is, of course, also true of the state of Israel in the Middle East.

The entire history of these countries is a struggle against the Islamisation of the region. Georgia has always been attractive to the Persians (Iranians) and Ottomans (Turks); both with great pleasure that would have swallowed it, thereby opening up for themselves the path to the North Caucasus.

After the the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Christian countries of the Caucasus again become interesting for the Islamic jihadists. Uncertain economic circumstances led the leaders of the Caucasian republics to seek ties with Iran, as well as with Turkey. Iran and Turkey and other countries professing Islam invested huge sums in the Christian Caucasian republics.

Iranian, Arabian and Turkish banks, registered in Azerbaijan and in Georgia, were sometimes used for this purpose. One of these banks is the Royal Bank in Baku, Azerbaijan. This bank has undertaken many dubious investments in the economy of the Christian republics in the Caucasus.

An Iranian banker who works in Azerbaijan in the Royal Bank told me that he has long promoted Georgian businessmen, representing the interests of Georgians who wanted to do business in Iran. One Georgian businessman with whom he has worked is today one of the major importers of oil products in Georgia. Despite international sanctions against Iran, in Georgia there was an abundance of Iranian oil products. According to the Iranian banker, a large shipment of oil that was sent to Georgia several years ago has still not been paid for, but despite this, he continues to lobby for Georgian businessmen in Iran.

The Iranian banker is not particularly interested in monetary gains. According to him, the purpose of his financial activities was to advance the strategic interests of Iran in the Caucasus. During the first Chechen jihad, he also aided Chechen businessmen in Iran.

This Iranian banker also told me how easy it was to do business with the Iranians. A few months ago, together with the Georgian President, he met in New York with the influential American businessman and a onetime possible candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2012, Donald Trump.

A similar situation exists with Turkey. Turkey is one of the most powerful investors in Georgia. Turkey is investing very large sums of money in the Georgian economy. Turkey is not officially an Islamic state. The Turks do not openly support jihad, but many of the jihadists and their sponsors are quite comfortable in that country. Representatives of jihadists from the Caucasus are in Turkey doing business informally, and thereby replenishing the coffers of the jihadists.

In addition, the Turkish government is building a few mosques in Georgia and minarets in the Adjara region, which borders Turkey.

Georgia opened its borders with the countries of the North Caucasus, as well as with Iran and Turkey, without requiring passports at border crossings. Mujahedeen traffic through Turkey and Iran was well established during the earlier jihad in the Caucasus, in 1994, when there were not the close economic relations between these countries that exist now. The governments of the Caucasian states have promised to stop the traffic of mujahedeen but they cannot do so now: their promises ring hollow given their close political and economic relations with Iran.

In the 1990s and thereafter, I heard Georgian politicians say that in the event of military conflict between the Western world and Iran, Georgia should become an outpost of NATO forces in the Caucasus. But now that possibility is highly questionable, due to Georgia’s close economic relations with Iran.

It is also very interesting that the chief spokesman of the jihadists in Georgia has said, “Jews and Zionists are true enemies of Islam. They are the main target of jihad.” I interviewed many of the jihadists, and they all kept saying the same thing.

The Israeli Information Portal izrus.co.il published this information (translate from the Russian):

Last week, a representative of the official leadership of the republics of the North Caucasus highlighted the Israeli perspective on the arrival from the Middle East of a prominent figure in the jihadist movement in the former Soviet Union. Appropriate verbal messages and some information was given through the MK Faina Kirschenbaum, who occupies the post of secretary general of the second-largest coalition party — “Israel Our Home.”

According to that source, one of the leaders of the jihadist movement in the North Caucasus has recently arrived in the Middle East: an Arab Islamist known by his nickname, Abu Rabia. According to the competent authorities in the North Caucasus region, he is now, apparently, in Egypt or in Turkey. The same sources do not exclude the possibility that in the near future, Abu Rabia may, under some pretext, try to cross into Israel.

It is also noted that in recent years, Abu Rabia kept in touch with the Chechen leader of the jihadist movement in the North Caucasus, Doku Umarov, and in Turkey with a native of the former Soviet Union, Zaurbek Guchaevym.

From the results of investigation carried out by the portal IzRus, it appears that during the years from 2001 to 2011 an Arab named Abu Rabia has repeatedly been mentioned in reports on the North Caucasus of the Russian and English-language media, as well as in Islamist forums in Russian and Arabic. Summarizing the information from these sources, we can conclude that from the beginning of the 2000s he was operating mainly from the territory of Georgia (the Akhmeta district in the north of the country). From there, Abu Rabia was engaged mainly in the transfer of funds to foreign mujaheddin in the North Caucasus, which came to him from sponsors in the Middle East (including through the Saudi Fund, “Al-Haramain”). In some cases, he was involved in providing documents for the transfer to Russia of Arab warlords.

This confirms that the economic expansion of Iran and Turkey into Georgia has begun to show “political benefits,” and the Caucasus region is becoming a convenient place for jihadists — a place that can be used as a base as part of the jihad against Israel.

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