(Second and Final Part)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s international TV station, i24NEWS, aired on January 27 a program that sang the praises of Azerbaijan-Israel military relations and denigrated Armenia and Iran. Last week, we published part 1 of the program. Here is the second and final part. My comments are in brackets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henrique Cymerman, an Israeli journalist, narrated the program: \u201cMilitary relations between Azerbaijan and Israel are getting closer by the minute. Between 2016 and 2020, 69% of Baku\u2019s weapons, drones and electronic systems were purchased from Israel. Almost one-fifth of Israeli war materials were exported and sent to Pres. Aliyev\u2019s country. Roman Gurevich is an Israeli political analyst born in Baku. He focuses on relations between the two countries: \u2018In the State of Israel, we are taking 40% of our fuels from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan uses our technology and we have very important strategic issues in common.\u2019 At the beginning of the 20th Century, Baku was already the world capital of oil production. A century ago, half of the world\u2019s oil was produced in Azerbaijan. In addition, during the Communist era in the 1930\u2019s, the dictator Joseph Stalin decided to increase production to the maximum level. After the break of the Second World War, Hitler\u2019s birthday cake did not leave room for doubt [\u2018Caspian Sea\u2019 was written on his cake]. The goal: to conquer the Caspian Sea, and the cherry on the cake, the City of Baku. The Nazis didn\u2019t succeed. That also contributed to the victory of the allies, since 75% of all the oil of the Red Army during the war was from Azerbaijan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israeli journalist continued: \u201cBaku\u2019s government claims its coalition with Israel is not directed against anyone. But for the regime of the Ayatollah, it is very hard to see how a country with a Muslim majority, and totally Shia, maintains such deep ties with the Jewish State, Iran\u2019s most hated enemy.\u201d Former Israeli Minister Efraim Sneh added: \u201cWe are in favor of a strong independent, secular Azerbaijan. And this is the basis of why we are together. In that way, this is very important: oil from Azerbaijan to Israel, defense equipment from us to them. Very important. And we are more involved, people to people, cultural relations. But the basis is energy and defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator then said: \u201cThe first President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev [Heydar was not the first President], father of the current president, decided on his alliance with Israel which remains to this day, and has Tehran as a common rival. In 2016, Israeli arms sales were estimated to be worth $2.85 billion. Pres. Aliyev decided that the former Soviet Republic would become the first Shiite Muslim state to open a diplomatic mission in Israel. In recent weeks, Baku\u2019s Secret Services have managed to dismantle an Iranian spy network in the capital. Three agents from Tehran received information from several local citizens with whom they met with a clandestine phone. The Iranian side regularly paid for their services. Azerbaijan\u2019s Security Services claimed that the ultimate goal of this network is to radicalize the country and contribute to the creation of an Islamic State, following the model of the Ayatollah. The President of Azerbaijan declared that religion is like an iceberg — much of it is hidden under water.\u201d Gurevich added: \u201cThe second war took place two years ago in 2020 after Armenian soldiers killed two senior officers of the Azerbaijani army [11th lie]. The result is that Azerbaijan reacted and liberated almost all of the occupied territories. When Armenians occupied Azerbaijan, the Iranians didn\u2019t threaten Armenia. They chose to threaten Azerbaijan now [12th lie], after liberating the territory. It\u2019s a very strange thing and a very strange alliance. …Azerbaijan is stronger after this victory with the rapprochement between Israel and Turkey. Iranians are under pressure. Instead of building good ties between neighbors, Iran is creating problems for the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator continued: \u201cIn the destroyed areas of Karabagh, the Baku government is trying to resettle thousands of refugees. That\u2019s why they are building the first smart cities which are still pilot projects. Refugees resulting from the war with Armenia are settled in areas that were completely destroyed. One of the problems is that the border areas are completely mined. Special army units and civilian companies try to clear the land from booby-traps, but this is a never-ending job\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator concluded: \u201cThe two armed conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia exist in a delicate ceasefire. And there are those who say that there aren\u2019t two without a third. But this tense situation is further complicated by Iran\u2019s nuclear race which is closer than ever to having enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb. For Iran to have Israeli agents on its border as allies of Azerbaijan is like having a knife to its throat. On the other hand, the Jewish State will do anything to prevent the Ayatollahs from carrying out their apocalyptic threats. It is like a three-person billiard game, if not more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documentary ended here. The narrator, Israel journalist Henrique Cymerman, was then interviewed live on the Israeli channel. Cymerman said: \u201cI think that Iran is really the reason for this alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan, which is huge. It\u2019s really important. It\u2019s strategic for both countries. I think this opening of [Azerbaijan\u2019s] Embassy [in Israel] is the result of a very long process. It\u2019s also a way of saying to Tehran, \u2018guys, we have a new ally. We have a new friend in the last years, but we want to go all the way….\u2019 And in a way, it\u2019s a message for the Iranians, but it\u2019s also a way of saying to Israel that they want more. They want more relations. I think they improved their strategic situation in their area of the world which is quite problematic. I was in the 700 hundred kilometers of the border between Azerbaijan and Iran, and I saw many things on the Iranian side. There were exercises and maneuvers — I tell about in the report — that are quite threatening for Azerbaijan. So they want Israel as a friend. And that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked if Azerbaijan is concerned about the \u201cpowerful enemy, Iran,\u201d Cymerman replied: \u201cAbsolutely. They are very concerned. And I think there were also these two wars they had against Armenia in the last 30 years that contributed to this alliance with Israel. Because 30 years ago they had a war when the Russians supported the Armenians [13th lie], and they lost. They lost 20% of their territory [it was much less than 20%], which is incredible, because it\u2019s like 10,000 square kilometers, it\u2019s like the Lebanese territory — half of Israel. So they lost it and one million Azeri people [it was much less than a million], they say, became refugees. So, now two years ago, in the second Karabagh War, they won because of Israeli technology. I think the Israeli military technology helped them to defeat their enemies, in this case, Armenia. But they also have the Iranian threat. So, they sent a message to Iran saying, \u2018now we have new technologies, we have Israel.\u2019 The Azeri President even had an Israeli drone in the picture. In a way, it\u2019s a kind of psychological war, showing that this alliance is really deep and important. They mean business in this relation with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Second and Final Part) Israel\u2019s international TV station, i24NEWS, aired on January 27 a program that sang the praises of Azerbaijan-Israel military relations and denigrated Armenia and Iran. Last week, we published part 1 of the program. Here is the second and final part. My comments are in brackets: Henrique Cymerman, an Israeli journalist, narrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":775174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-775046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}