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Turkish security forces have identified the five suicide attackers, members of the Islamic State militant group (IS), who declared about imminent attacks in the territory of Azerbaijan and Turkey. One of the terrorists, Isa Tupolov, is a Russian citizen of Azerbaijani origin, 1news.az reports citing Turkish Haberler.

According to the report, Tupolov is currently in the Syrian province Rai and plans to commit terror attacks in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In this context, an Azerbaijani expert on national security issues, professor Kamil Salimov, told the Sputnik Azerbaijan agency that serious terror attacks by the Islamic State are threatening Azerbaijan’s security.

According to him, the fact that the Azerbaijan Ministry of National Security stated that it studies the information about the expected attacks in the territory of the country indicates that the threats are real.

“The country’s law enforcement agencies officially declared about it for the first time recently,” Salimov highlighted adding that militant organizations, in particular, the IS, will try not to miss a chance like the upcoming Baku Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe for committing a series of attacks.

Salimov also indicated that the latest attacks in Turkey prove that Azerbaijan is not an inaccessible territory for the IS at all, as there are several routes for penetrating into the country.

He added that it is possible that there are still citizens in Azerbaijan’s territory recruited by the IS. “The third factor is that there is religious extremism in Azerbaijan, against which the authorities struggle. It should be kept in mind that Azerbaijan is near the conflict area. Besides, Wahhabism is widespread in the North Caucasus, and it is our neighbor,” Salimov said reminding that Azerbaijan is within the zone of the IS’s geopolitical interests.

The Azerbaijani terrorists have long been fighting in the ranks of various terrorist groups in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Azerbaijani media reported about the death of about 200 Azerbaijani terrorists in Syria alone over the past three years. There have also been frequent media reports about Azerbaijani terrorist commanders’ liquidation.

The relationship between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan originates in the early 1990s. Back then, the Azerbaijani army, having failed in the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), retreated with losses. Trying to save the situation, the Azerbaijani leadership, headed by Heydar Aliyev attracted to the war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh international terrorists and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (groupings of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Turkey ("Grey Wolves", etc.), Chechnya (groupings Basayev and Raduyev etc.) and some other regions.

Despite the involvement of thousands of foreign mercenaries and terrorists in the Azerbaijani army during the war, the Azerbaijani aggression against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic failed, and the Baku authorities were forced to sign an armistice with the NKR and Armenia. However, international terrorists established ties in Azerbaijan, and used them in the future. Azerbaijanis were recruited and sent to Afghanistan and the North Caucasus, where they participated in the battles against the forces of the international coalition and Russian organizations. Over the recent years, citizens of Azerbaijan have been actively engaged in terrorism and extremist activities in Russia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.