On January 27, Israel’s international TV station, i24NEWS, aired a half-hour program full of falsehoods to glorify Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel and vilify Armenia, Iran and Russia. This scandalous program had nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with Azerbaijan’s notorious ‘caviar diplomacy.’
Here are excerpts from the TV program which I have transcribed. My comments are in brackets:
The narrator, Israeli journalist Henrique Cymerman, said: “Azerbaijan has problematic neighbors, especially Vladimir Putin’s Russia in the North and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Iran in the South. Yet, its main historical enemy is another neighbor, Armenia, a country with a Christian majority that has clashed with Azerbaijan in two major wars, causing thousands of victims. In the first war of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991, Armenia, backed by Russia, [first lie] managed to conquer 10,000 square kilometers in the border zone, a region the size of Lebanon. The official objective was to create a buffer zone. For Azerbaijan, 2020 was the year of victory in the second Karabakh war. President Ilham Aliyev’s army reconquered all areas [second lie] occupied by the Armenians only to find dozens of villages and small towns completely destroyed and booby-trapped. [third lie] Such was the case in Khodaafarin area, just a few meters from the Iranian border on the banks of Arax River. In this scenario, Iran supported Armenia [fourth lie] and Israel supported Azerbaijan.”
The reporter interviewed Mubarak Qurbanli, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Religious Affairs, who said: “Armenia seized our lands. [fifth lie] It took a huge heroic effort for our army to win them back in the last war. The Azerbaijani people know that during this war, Iran was on the side of Armenia. [sixth lie] So you can understand these unpleasant feelings, not towards the people, but towards the Iranian regime… Iran reproaches Israel it seems from the point of view of Orthodox Islam. But, where was Iran for 30 years when Armenia, violating all international laws [seventh lie], occupied Azerbaijani lands, including the Iranian border. Why did Iran remain silent then?” [eighth lie]
The narrator continued: “The ceasefire was finally achieved by Vladimir Putin. At the liberation celebration in Baku, the army viewed the offensive drones it had acquired from Israel and which caused many casualties among Armenian forces [shameful boast about killing Armenians]. One of the strong men in the Baku government is Hikmet Hajiyev, President Aliyev’s top advisor and his foreign policy strategist. He claims that Israel is one of the first countries that recognized Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991 and delivered news that angered Tehran.” Hajiyev said: “The president of Azerbaijan and National Parliament made a decision to open a full-fledged Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the state of Israel, and with the opening of the Azerbaijan Embassy in Israel we will be able to manage to bring to a quantitatively new level the Israel-Azerbaijan strategic partnership.” [Hajiyev did not mention that due to President Aliyev’s fear of a backlash from Islamic states, Azerbaijan opened an Embassy in Tel Aviv only in 2022 – almost 30 years after Israel opened its embassy in Baku in 1993. And then, to soften the negative reaction of Islamic states, Azerbaijan opened a representative office in Ramallah, the West Bank].
The reporter then added: “The closer the strategic relation between Baku and Jerusalem is, the more Tehran threatens both countries. In a video broadcast by the Islamic Republic of Iran, it clearly defined that the path to the Holy Mosque of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem passes through the capital of Azerbaijan. It is the first time that Tehran has threatened the two countries, saying ‘you are digging your graves. Anyone who defies Iran will be destroyed.’ Tehran also attacks Israel’s new Arab partners that support the Abraham Accords: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and even Saudi Arabia… This is one of the most explosive borders in the world. On this side, we are in Azerbaijan which is a secular Muslim country, a strategic ally of Israel, and there we can see the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran which defines the US and Israel as ‘the big Satan and the little Satan.’ According to Iran, the road through Jerusalem passes through Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. In October 2022, the Iranian army decided to launch an act of intimidation against Azerbaijan accusing its northern neighbor of being agents of Israel. Thousands of Iranian soldiers crossed the Arax River on the border between the two states with tanks, planes, helicopters and military trucks. The Iranian army also dropped hundreds of paratroopers over the border area. There were dozens of videos of military maneuvers which showed time and time again, the target of their missiles: the Jewish state’s Star of David. Tehran points to the growing ties between Baku and Jerusalem.” Then a video is shown of an Iranian general saying: “We are turning at the crossing of the Arax River on the border with Azerbaijan so that they will take us seriously. We do not accept the presence of Zionists next door.”
The i24NEWS program continued: “Many of the military drills took place on the Iranian side of the river, but at times there were air and ground infiltrations within Azerbaijani territory. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev responded to Iranian generals with a tweet that enraged Tehran: a photo of the leader of Azerbaijan embracing the Israeli Harop type kamikaze drone. Azerbaijan bought the SkyStriker and LORA drones from Israeli companies Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries.”
The journalist then interviewed Efraim Sneh, a former Israeli minister who is described as “the architect of the alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan.” He said: “I recognized the importance of friendly Azerbaijan, given its very close proximity to Iran and the fact that a big part of Iran is Azeri. [ninth lie] I thought this is a case for us to establish a strong, sound bridge between Israel and Azerbaijan… The Azeri people took a major role in the combat against Nazi Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Azeris who went to the war against Hitler during the ‘Great Patriotic War,’ didn’t return home. They fell in the battlefield in Europe and Germany. And this is something that a Jew can never forget. We remain always grateful for the contribution of Azerbaijan to the defeat of the Nazis.” [tenth lie – The Israeli Minister seems unaware that fighting for Nazi Germany were 70,000 Azeris who participated in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. Hitler called these Azeris his reliable allies.]
The narrator continued: “During our journey along the 700-kilometer border, we saw other Israeli technologies being used to surveil the Iranian side, for example, high-precision cameras and very sophisticated electronic sensors. According to several sources, these systems support operations conducted by special units and Israeli secret agents who infiltrate Iran to fight against its nuclear projects. It’s a delicate surgical fight, according to the international press. Israel permanently maintains pilots of its Air Force in Azerbaijan as well as several [US] F-35 fighter jets, the fifth generation of combat aircraft considered to be the most sophisticated on the planet. Following the Iranian drills, an F-35 apparently infiltrated Iranian airspace to assess the efficiency of its anti-aircraft system.” [If true, this is a clear admission that Israel has violated its agreement with the US not to transfer the F-35s to another country.]
Harut Sassounian
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The Azerbaijani Legion (German: Aserbaidschanische Legion) was one of the foreign units of the Wehrmacht. It was formed in December 1941 on the Eastern Front as the Kaukasische-Mohammedanische Legion (Muslim Caucasus Legion) and was re-designated 1942 into two separate legions, the North Caucasian legion and the Azerbaijani legion.
According to Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, 40,000 Azerbaijanis fought for Nazi Germany.
The Wola massacre ( ’Wola slaughter’) was the systematic killing of between 70,000 and 90,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the Azerbaijani Legion,
Whole families, including babies, children and the elderly, were often shot on the spot, but some were killed after torture and sexual assault.
On 5 August, three German battle groups started their advance toward the city centre from the western outskirts of the Wola district, along Wolska and Górczewska streets. The German forces consisted of units from the Wehrmacht and the SS Police Battalions, as well as the mostly Russian SS-Sturmbrigade RONA and the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, an infamous Waffen SS penal unit led by Oskar Dirlewanger, which included Azerbaijani Legion (part of the Ostlegionen).[9] British historian Martin Windrow described Dirlewanger’s unit as a “terrifying rabble” of “cut-throats, [foreign] renegades, sadistic morons, and cashiered rejects from other units”
Two hours before midnight on 5 August the Azerbaijani soldiers and Bergmann Battalion attacked St Lazarus hospital, executed hundreds of patients, doctors, and nurses, before burning it down.
Azerbaijani Legion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijani_Legion.
Azerbaijani SS volunteer formations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijani_SS_volunteer_formations
Wola massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_massacre
The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide – Yair Auron.
“With regard to the Armenians, here we must remember the past. The defunct Hamelitz, in its day, lauded the participation of the Sephardic jews together with the Turks in the massacre of the Armenians in Constantinople in 1895. And then there were the pogroms in Odessa and cities in the south, and among the sainted defenders we find the Armenian students who were killed while saving us. Let us not forget! Few were the Russians and the Poles who defended us, but according to estimates, among those who especially came to our aid were the Armenians and their cousins, the Georgians. Let us not forget how they treated us and how we treated their misfortune.” p 137.
“According to the paper, many Jews joined with the Mohammedans to strike against the Armenians and “pursued them to the end.” p 146.
“It seems that the article can be read in only one way: rejoicing and ridicule of the tragedy of the Armenian victims. The writer is proud that “while this was happening to our brethren in the Turkish capital, there was a miracle apart from the miracle of the prayer shawl fringe.” Now they will be able to take the place of the Armenians in economic and commercial activity.” p 147.
“the jews in Haskoy (a jewish quarter in Constantinople where many Armenians also lived) played a shameful part in helping the Kurds to search out the hiding places of the victims” p 151.
“The involvement of the Jews in the massacre aroused harsh feelings within the Jewish community as early as 1896. In a letter on September 21, 1896, a man named V. Gerson writes to the president of “Kol Yisrael Chaverim” in Paris, about an idea floated by a number of Jewish leaders in Constantinople regarding the behavior of Jews during the slaughter of Armenians. The idea, according to the letter, was to ask the institutions of “Kol Yisrael Chaverim” to publish an article in the European press which would prove beyond doubt that the Jews in Constantinople had behaved decently and bravely during the recent slaughter of the poor Armenians of Haskoy by the Turks and Kurds. The proposed article would show that a number of Jews had endangered their own lives in order to save many Armenians who hid in Jewish homes and were thus saved from certain death.”
“The writer admits “A number of negative elements—allow me to use the expression: some hooligans from Haskoy—took part in acts of looting. This is, indeed, the case. The writer is apologetic in explaining the actions of those Jews. The Jews led the Turks and Kurds to the homes of the Armenians so that only the Armenians would be hurt, “and not our brethren.” The looting slowed down the search for additional Armenians. p 151
“We may assume that these are not all of the facts and not even all of the documentation concerning the role of the Jews—their participation in one way or another—in the massacre of the Armenians. A more comprehensive examination of the archives of Alliance in Paris may shed additional light. Nonetheless, I believe that there can be no doubt that the involvement of Jews in Constantinople in the massacre was shameful.” p 152
“Now they will be able to take the place of the Armenians in economic and commercial activity.”!!!
Many of the “Young Turks”/CUP leaders were donmeh Jews, and Zionist Jews that went to the ottoman empire from other countries to take part in the revolution.
The British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Sir Gerald Lowther’s letter to Sir Charles Harding, May 29 1910.
“Shortly after the revolution in July 1908, it soon became known that many of the Young Turks’ leading members were Freemasons. It was noticed that Jews of all colours, native and foreign, were enthusiastic supporters of the new dispensation, till, as many Turks expressed it, every Hebrew became a potential spy of the Young Turks. Turks began to remark that the movement was rather a Jewish than a Turkish Revolution.”
Since the 2020 war there has been a rise in anti Armenian rhetoric and actions worldwide. This is mainly fueled by fascist Azerbaijan but also includes supporters such as the Turkish government, grey wolves in Turkey and France, right wing Israelis in Jerusalem, and anti Armenian policies by the Ukrainian, Hungarian and even Georgian governments. They all sense the weakness of the Armenians and think this is the right time to strike and grab territory in Armenia/Artsakh, buildings in the Jerusalem Patriarchate and curry favor with Baku with anti Armenian political stands. Anti Armenianism is becoming the new antisemitism of the 21st century. This has to be countered on both the political and moral level. The political response has to come from the Armenian government. The moral response can come from Armenian NGOs in alliance with like minded organizations. For example, Armenians could set up The International Committee for the Protection of Armenians led by the Aurora foundation, AGBU and ARS. It must reach out to non Armenian organizations such as International Rescue Committee, Medecins sans Frontier , ADL, NAACP, Christian, Jewish , Moslem and Hindu charitable and civil rights organizations, and public intellectuals such as Prof. David Philips(Columbia U. USA) , Prof Charney (Hebrew U., Israel), Bernard Henri Levy (France). Special effort must be made to reach out to the US government because it may be the only entity that has the political and military will power to protect Armenians during their time of peril. Apparently Russia has decided to join the fascists.
What did you expect from the apartheid state known as Israel?
Probably worth mentioning that a number of Jewish youths sent on so-called Birthright trips have been abandoning the guided tours so that they can see how Israel treats the Palestinians.
I disagree. Israel is not a friend of Azerbaijan, in fact, it is nobody’s friend. for them it is all about self-interest. Israel has done more harm than good to Azerbaijan. the defeat in the first karabakh war was the direct result of close diplomatic relationship between the two countries. if it was not for that relationship, Iran would have supplied Azerbaijan with all the weapons it needed to defend itself against Armenian aggression and would not have needed to buy weapons for billions of dollars to fight the second karabakh war. whenever Azerbaijan asked Iran for military help,they were told to ask their Israeli friends.Iran told Azerbaijan that Israel has all the weapons in the world and they should ask them. Israelis could have help but chose not to. that is why Azerbaijan lost the war. Israel had just as much weapons then as in 2020. why didn’t they help Azerbaijan then, you might ask? well, because Azerbaijan didn’t have money to pay for the weapons it wanted. but from 2010 on they sold weapons to Azerbaijan, because Azerbaijan had money to pay for what it wanted. so Azerbaijan didn’t receive any help from Israel. Azerbaijan bought only weapons from Israel. Azerbaijan would have bought from someone else if Israel hadn’t sold them what they needed. that is why they sold them some weapons.
This is complete misinformation, fantasy and cooked up comment.
Does go to show that the popular although nowadays less espoused notion of a Judeo Christian (western civilisation) struggle against Islamic (orientalism) attack doesn’t add up
Russia might? be realising that pandering to Azerbaijan at Armenias expense is akin to Aesops fable of the father, son and donkey
At least for Armenia Joe Biden is more sympathetic than Donald Trump and less enamoured with Turkey and doesn’t get on with Benjamin Netanyahu particularly well whose third term doesn’t have the authority of his previous administration.
Although with the current war in Ukraine, Azerbaijan has been able to play a neutralist stance and serve as an obstacle to direct connection between Russia and Iran and as a non Russian source of energy and a conduit for central Asia to Europe avoiding Russia which will definitely put them in good favour with the west without particular colluding with Israel as its lobbyist