Baku: The Shooter of the Ganja Mayor Resided in Qom and Was Trained in Syria

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan announced in separate reports that the shooter of the Ganja mayor and his bodyguard had resided in Qom for eight months and then went to Syria for military training. On the evening of this past Monday, coinciding with widespread power outages in Azerbaijan, Elmar Valiyev, the mayor of Ganja, and his bodyguard were shot in the head and body by a local individual and are currently in critical condition. The shooter was arrested shortly after by the police. In a statement published on their official website on Friday, July 15, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office stated that Yunus Safarov, born in Ganja and currently a Russian citizen, traveled to Iran in 2016 and stayed in Qom for eight months. According to the report, he then went to Syria with Rasim Asadov, an Azerbaijani citizen, as part of the forces supporting Bashar al-Assad and received military training. The report further states that he returned to Azerbaijan last year and in June attacked a police officer guarding the 'Capital' bank in Ganja, stealing his pistol. The report adds that he intended to form an organization called the Unity of Azerbaijani Muslims and incite people to assassinate officials, preparing the ground for chaos in the country and establishing an Islamic government under Sharia law. According to the report, he also prepared a video file regarding his actions and sent it to friends abroad, which was to be released quickly if his assassination operation succeeded and he managed to escape. The report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office states that three of his accomplices have been arrested so far, and investigations are ongoing to apprehend other members of this network. Mr. Safarov, in a short video released on Friday by Azerbaijani media, sitting next to his lawyer in the police station, admitted responsibility for shooting the Ganja mayor and his bodyguard and stated that he had been informed of the charges against him. As of the publication of this report, Iran has not reacted to this matter.