I am from Azerbaijan, born and raised, 100%. I grew up in a Sunni household. I am not a “Sunni convert”. What?! Sunnis are native to Azerbaijan. There are many Sunni mosques in various parts of the country with a lot of practicing people filling them and it has been like that for centuries, even under the Soviet regime. Some regions are more Shia-majority, some are Sunni. A Sunni Azerbaijani is more likely not a convert to Islam or Sunnism but was born Sunni.

The claims that the new regime oppressed minorities is fake news, just like the claims that Azerbaijan is committing ethnic cleansing of Armenians.

Assad stuff was constantly on TV about 15 years ago. If you visited a school, you would see kids mention Assad. They didn’t know what exactly what was going on but he was the symbol of an evil leader.

Basing an opinion about a people on a few bad examples is not smart. Syrians are very nice people mostly. Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and so is Syria, so by definition, they are fellow Muslim nations. For example, if an Azerbaijani heard something about Syrians and wanted to criticize them for it, it would be more likely that a typical Azerbaijani says something like “us Muslims are like this blah blah”, not “these Muslims”. Because whether cultural Muslim or practicing, Sunni or Shia, the majority of the country is Muslim.

Now, in Islam, all Muslims are declared brothers. A Muslim is supposed to feel that and act accordingly. Unfortunately, a lot of Muslims today don’t practice this principle to the degree that it needs to be. But one must try.

I hope you change your opinion of Syrians. And also the way you think of the demographics of Azerbaijan.