The Ministry of National Security (MNS, Azerbaijani: Milli Təhlukəsizlik Nazirliyi) was an

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informa ...

within the cabinet of Azerbaijan. The MNS was a central executive authority that carried out the competencies designated to it by the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the field of obtaining and analyzing information about foreign affairs,

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

s, individuals. The MNS also carried out intelligence,

counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

, protection of state secrets, revealing, preventing, precluding and detection of crimes. On 14 December 2015, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree dissolving the ministry and creating a National Security Service with domestic duties and a foreign intelligence service.

History

Ministry of National Security of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

was established on the material-technical and personnel basis of the Soviet Committee of State Security (KGB) on November 1, 1991. Within a short period of time, representatives of other nationalities had left the Ministry and Azerbaijan, the process of staffing Ministry only by the national specialists had begun. Not only the name and the personnel of the security body had changed, but primary change the Ministry faced was its mission and duties.

Organization

The Ministry was guided by the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the decrees of President, the decisions and decrees of the Cabinet of Ministers, the international treaties of which Azerbaijan was a part, its statute, and other normative-legal acts of the MNS. The MNS headquarters were in the following cities: * Baku * Ganja * Nakhchivan

MNS operations

In 2008, the MNS arrested a dozen of Al-Qaeda members who were involved in terrorist attack on Abu Bakr Mosque.

Foreign ties and cooperation

The MNS has ties to several

foreign intelligence Intelligence assessment, or simply intel, is the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organisation, based on wide ranges of available overt and covert information (intelligence). Assessments d ...

agencies including National Intelligence Organization, Mossad and others.Спецслужбы Азербайджана
The MNS helped thwart the 2000 assassination attempt on Russian president

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

by Iraqi citizen Kenan Ahmed Rustam in

Martyrs' Lane Martyrs' Lane or Alley of Martyrs ( az, Şəhidlər Xiyabanı), formerly known as the Kirov Park, is a cemetery and memorial in Baku, Azerbaijan dedicated to those killed by the Soviet Army during Black January 1990 and in the First Nagorno-Karaba ...

Ministers (1991–2015)

Ministers of National Security of Azerbaijan

References

External links

Official site of Ministry of National Security
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry Of National Security Of Azerbaijan Counterintelligence agencies Defunct Azeri intelligence agencies 1991 establishments in Azerbaijan 2015 disestablishments in Azerbaijan