The Jerusalem Post: Israel’s military support to Azerbaijan has made it complicit in tyrannical rule and a humanitarian disaster in Artsakh
Former Advisor to Israeli President Nadav Tamir said in an article for The Jerusalem Post that over 120,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands in just a matter of days, with reports of civilians being harassed, starved, and intimidated into leaving.
As noted, under the iron rule of President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan stands as one of the most despotic regimes in the world.
Elections in Azerbaijan are farcical, with Aliyev routinely securing more than 80% of the vote in contests that lack even a veneer of legitimacy. Dissent is crushed with brutal efficiency. Journalists, opposition figures, and activists are routinely imprisoned, and the state’s control over media and civil society is near-total.
Kedar’s article sidesteps Azerbaijan’s recent actions in Nagorno-Karabakh, where it executed one of the largest instances of ethnic cleansing in recent history.
“This mass exodus did not occur in a vacuum; it was the culmination of a systematic campaign to erase the Armenian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region they have inhabited for millennia,” Tamir writes, adding that even after the expulsion, Azerbaijan’s assault on Armenian cultural heritage continues unabated. Reports from organizations such as Human Rights Watch and UNESCO detail the destruction of Armenian churches, monasteries, and cemeteries – a brazen attempt to rewrite history and sever the connection between the land and its original inhabitants.
“These actions constitute cultural genocide and are part of Aliyev’s broader policy of denying Armenia’s historical and cultural legacy in the region. Indeed, the regime is now coveting land in Armenia proper, and could well soon restart war,” Tamir writes. As noted, the alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan is often justified on the grounds that Azerbaijan supplies Israel with a significant portion of its oil needs and provides a strategic foothold near Iran. In return, Israel sells advanced weaponry to Azerbaijan, including drones and missiles that have been brutally and lethally deployed against Armenia. But let us not delude ourselves: This is a Faustian bargain. Israel’s military support has made it complicit in tyrannical rule and a humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The European Parliament has condemned Azerbaijan for its actions in Artsakh, and US lawmakers have called for sanctions against the Aliyev regime. “By aligning itself so closely with Azerbaijan, Israel risks alienating key allies and undermining its own credibility as a democracy that upholds human rights. Israel’s relationship with Azerbaijan should be re-evaluated in light of these realities. While strategic alliances are a necessary aspect of international relations, they must not come at the expense of fundamental moral principles. By continuing to arm and endorse a regime that engages in ethnic cleansing, cultural erasure, and political repression, Israel is compromising its values and tarnishing its image on the global stage,” the diplomat concluded.
