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Azerbaijan Crime Prevention Agencies
Azerbaijan established a separate contingent of border troops
in 1992, but the demands of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have
limited staffing. In 1993 liaison was established with the border
troop commands of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine for cooperative
drug control and exchange of methodology. A small officer
training program for border troops has been established at the
Baku All Forces Commanders' School, with the intention of
increasing enrollment once the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh is
resolved. Long-term plans called for European-style checkpoints
after war damage is repaired and official borders are recognized.
In 1993 the Ministry of Internal Affairs underwent a major
reform, a significant aspect of which was abolition of its
Administration for the Struggle Against Terrorism and Banditry.
That agency, nominally the spearhead of national crime
prevention, had proven ineffective because of unclear
jurisdictions and poor professional performance. Law enforcement
cooperation with other CIS countries has been irregular. In
restructuring its law enforcement operations, however, the
government has consulted the ministries of internal affairs of
Georgia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Russia, and Turkey. In 1993
the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent ninety employees to study
law enforcement at education institutions in Russia and Ukraine.
Also, contacts were strengthened with the International Criminal
Police Organization (Interpol) and the national law enforcement
agencies of neighboring countries.
Despite Aliyev's reforms, the delicate state of Azerbaijani
national security continued to affect all other aspects of the
new nation's activities. Normal foreign relations and trade were
blocked by the ramifications for other nations dealing with one
side or the other of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But despite
the clear need for action, extreme nationalists sharply limited
the president's range of options by holding the threat of ouster
over his head for any step that might appear to be conciliatory
toward the traditional enemy, Armenia.
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For historical background on Azerbaijan, the best source is
Audrey L. Alstadt's The Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity
under Russian Rule. Earlier sources covering specific
historical topics include J.D. Henry's Baku: An Eventful
History (covering the exploitation of oil in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries); Russian Azerbaijan,
1905-1920: The Shaping of National Identity in a Muslim
Community by Tadeusz Swietochowski (including an introductory
chapter covering nineteenth-century Russian rule); Ronald G.
Suny's The Baku Commune, 1917-1918; Class and Nationality in
the Russian Revolution; and The Struggle for
Transcaucasia, 1917-1921 by Firuz Kazemzadeh. Overviews of
nationality issues include Tamara Dragadze's "Azerbaijanis" in
The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union, edited by
Graham Smith, and Frank Huddle, Jr.'s "Azerbaidzhan and the
Azerbaidzhanis" in Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities,
edited by Zev Katz. (For further information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of March 1994
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