Fay,
	Isn't Azerbaijan where the ancient Medes were from?
40 years ago, I worked there, when it was still a Soviet republic.
The women, there, couldn't wear headscarves, so they walked around holding kerchiefs to their mouths, as if they had colds.
One night I walked through an old section, and saw them doing Ramadan things.
The next few days, the Russians, there, tried desperately to convince me that I didn't see what I said that I saw.
They said that an atheist republic couldn't have religious celebrations.
Even under the boot of the KGB, the muslims there were busting to come out.
The Russians, also, treated them in a very similar way, which many in America treated black citizens, during Jim Crow days.
They were not very pro-Moscow, then, how much more so, now, that they are free of the KGB?
Even back then, they had secret dealings with the then new Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is very interesting, though, their relationship with Israel.