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 Namig Abuzarov    
80 
1)  Personell of the Turkish Diyanet Foundation who are going to work in the 
institutions of Azerbaijan will be invited to the country with the cooperation of the 
SCWRA.  
2)  The Turkish religious personnel including educators, clergies and instructors 
can organize varies seminars and courses to improve the educational program of 
Azerbijani clergies. 
3)  The personnel appointed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs of the 
Republic of Turkey, can work in Azerbaijan only with the consent of SCWRA, 
4)  Turkish clergies can preach in the mosques that built by Turkish Diyanet 
Foundation in Azerbaijan namely Shehidler, Garachukhur, Mehdiabad, Ilahiyyat (in 
Baku), Kazim Karabekir (in Nakhchivan), Leki (in Aghdash), Gusar, Yevlax, until 
the concrete needs of the field of religious education are determined, 
5)  The parties will also cooperate in improving the quality of religious 
educators who are citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Turkey, 
6)  However, with the consent of the parties and, if deemed necessary, the 
possibilities of Azerbaijani students to study in the Faculties of Theology in Turkey 
will be investigated, 
7)  The parties will also continue to cooperate in providing opportunities for the 
graduates of the Faculty of Theology of the Baku State University (BSU) to do a 
master`s degree and a PhD in varies universities of Turkey, 
8)  The parties will cooperate untill the Azerbaijani academic staff replaces the 
Turkish instructors who currently teach in the Faculty of Theology of BSU. 
9)  Turkish Diyanet Foundation and SCWRA will also cooperate, if necessary, 
in the field of religious tourism and pilgrimage. 
10) The parties will also agreed to cooperate in providing Azerbaijani people 
with religious literature and prevent the religious literature that has a negative 
impact on society.
11
  
The document signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan is a milestone in the history 
of religious relationships between two countries. According to the terms of this 
agreement, it would be processed for five years, and if parties declared no intention to 
cancel the agreement, it would be automatically extended for the next five years.
12
  
Under the contract Turkish clergies (imams) fulfilled their contractual 
obligations and preached for ten years in varies mosques of Azerbaijan that were 
                                                 
11
 Retrieved from 
http://scwra.gov.az/docs/150/
? 
12
 Ibid. 

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Religious Relationships Between Turkey and Azerbaijan 
81 
built by Turkish Diyanet Foundation. In 2013 Turkish imams left their positions for 
Azerbaijani imams. During their tenure, Turkish imams delivered speeches 
(khutbah) in the Friday ceremony (juma) and lead the community during the Friday 
communal worship.  
Turkish Islam is based on the more moderate Hanafi school of Sunni Islam, so, 
the emphases in sermons are put on moral, social and economic issues. Hence, as in 
Turkey, Turkish imams in Azerbaijan tend to avoid discussions on controversial and 
political topics during their Friday speeches. Instead they talk about general moral 
and ethical obligations of Muslims. They disapprove any sort of violence and call 
for order and moderation. The majority of the audience of Turkish mosques 
consisted of studying or working Turks in Azerbaijan, but also young and educated 
Azerbaijanis.
13
 However this picture has been changed since Turkish imams left the 
country. Today, Salafi interpretation and appearance set religious tone in the 
mosques that built by the Turkish Diyanet Foundation in Baku. 
 
Turkish Diyanet Foundation found the Faculty of Theology in cooperation with 
Baku State University in 1992. In the late 90s and early 2000s the instructors of the 
Faculty of Theology were predominantly comprised of Turkish professors. Over the 
course of this period approximately 20 alumni received their Ph.D degrees on 
religious studies from different universities of Turkey, and due to limited capacity, 
only a few of them could take part in the Faculty of Theology. Since 2005 
Azerbaijani theologians who came back after receiving their doctorate degrees have 
also taken part in varies universities and the academic institutions of Azerbaijan 
especially in different departments of Azerbaijan National Academy of Science 
(ANAS).  
The education system in the Republic of Azerbaijan is constitutionally separated 
from religion.
14
 So, religious education is not allowed both in government-run and 
private schools in Azerbaijan. This poses a significant challenge to the theologians, 
because they cannot teach in schools. Therefore, some of the graduates of The 
Faculty of Theology either change their areas of expertise by taking a two-year 
course on literature or history, or they chose to work in varies areas. Mosques and 
the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations (SCWRA) are only 
fields in which graduates of the Faculty of Theology are able to work. In other 
                                                 
13
 Svante E. Cornell, The Politicization of Islam in Azerbaijan, p. 50. Washington 2006. 
14
 Azərbaycan Respublikasinda din-dövlət münasibətlərini tənzimləyən rəsmi sənədlər, Dini 
Qurumlarla İş üzrə Dövlət Komitəsi, Baku 2004. p. 7.  

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 Namig Abuzarov    
82 
words, there is a limited number of job opportunities or vacancies for the alumni of 
the Faculty of Theology in SCWRA or in the mosques.  
The alumni of the Faculty of Theology are in majority in the SCWRA. This 
stems from the curriculum that the Faculty of Theology provides, and the vision that 
the students form there.  
It is important to note that both the curriculum and the textbooks of the Faculty 
of Theology changed over the course of its history. In the late 90s and early 2000s 
the Faculty of Theology of BSU used similar or even identical curriculum to those 
of Theology Faculties of Turkey. However, when the Azerbaijani instructors 
replaced the Turkish professors between 2006 and 2010 the curriculum and the 
textbooks of the Theology Faculty were developed in accordance with religious 
background of the Azerbaijani students. In other words, the Turkish professors 
developed a new curriculum and wrote new textbooks jointly with Azerbaijani 
faculties. The new textbooks covered not only the four sunni schools, but also Ja`fari 
school of the Shiites, the second largest denominations of Islam that, as it was 
mentioned, sets religious tone in Azerbaijan with 65% of the population.  
Unlike other faculties of Theology in Azerbaijan, the Faculty of Theology of 
BSU offers Islamic sciences including exegesis of Quran (al-tafsir), Islamic 
jurisprudence (al-fiqh), Islamic theology (al-kalam), the sayings of the Prophet 
(hadith) etc. in a comparative manner. In addition to Islamic sciences, the students of 
Theology Faculty are taught courses like philosophy, logic, religious sociology, 
religious psychology and the history of major living religions that enable them to 
evaluate religious topics from various perspectives. The vision that the students form 
in the Theology Faculty also enables them to be tolerant along with being religious 
experts. “A considerable part of the specialist here (the SCWRA) are the alumni of 
the Faculty of Theology of BSU, and they are modernists,” says Mubariz Gurbanli, 
the head of the SCWRA in one of his interviews.
15
  
The Academic Journal of the Faculty of Theology also provides a realm for the 
researchers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran to publish their scholarly articles.
16
 This 
academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarly papers on 
religions, social sciences and humanities have been published since 2005. The 
                                                 
15
 Mubariz Gurbanli gave this interview to the website “Modern.az” on 10.01.15. Retrieved 
from 
http://modern.az/articles/70337/1/
 04.03.15. 
16
 The Academic Journal of the Faculty of Theology of BSU, Bakı Dövlət Universiteti 
İlahiyyat Fakültəsinin Elmi Məcmuəsi, (ISSN: 2225-5567). 

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