BBC: Can Israel drive a wedge between Baku and Ankara?
"Two countries, one people." Azerbaijan has lived by this slogan since the 1990s, viewing Turkey as a military and political ally. President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly thanked Turkey for its support in the Karabakh war, and Turkish flags have flown across Baku. However, the war in Gaza has revealed just how different the interests of Baku and Ankara are. Turkey openly opposes Israel, Azerbaijan's other ally. And now Aliyev says that no help was provided and that Baku merely paid its bills for weapons, writes the BBC.
"During the war, nobody actually helped us, yet Azerbaijan has allied relations with Turkey and there are no disagreements between the countries," Rasim Musabekov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, told the BBC.
Meanwhile, without mentioning Turkey, Azerbaijani media have for several days been writing that Azerbaijan is an independent country and must not be subject to any outside influence, quoting excerpts from the president's speech and analyzing them.
"Given Aliyev's statements that no one helped Azerbaijan, we can assume they were framed as a message to Turkey," says Hasan Selim Ozertem, a political analyst from Ankara. He notes that identity in Azerbaijan is built largely around the theme of the return of Karabakh and the idea that Azerbaijanis achieved it themselves.
Azerbaijan also used Israeli Harop drones in that war. And Israeli flags were likewise seen on the streets of Baku on November 10, 2020, following the Russian-brokered agreement with Armenia.
Apparently, the friction between Azerbaijan and Turkey began after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium at the recent UN General Assembly session in New York to talk about the exploding pagers Israel used against Hezbollah militants. While representatives of several countries walked out of the hall in protest and demonstrations against Netanyahu's visit took place outside the UN building, photographs of Azerbaijan's representative remaining in the hall among empty seats circulated widely on social media. The fact that Turkey's representative walked out while Azerbaijan's stayed displeased the Turkish media, which felt that Azerbaijan was not acting as a proper ally.
Azerbaijan maintains good relations with both Turkey and Israel. It sells oil to both countries and buys weapons from them.
"It is well known that many in Turkey, especially Islamist circles, are unhappy with Baku's close ties with Israel. But first, this is not something Ankara would want to provoke a confrontation with Azerbaijan over․ Second, Turkey itself takes an ambivalent stance: while harshly criticizing the Israeli leadership, Ankara continues its economic relations with it, including the transit of Azerbaijani and Iraqi oil," believes Ruslan Suleymanov, an Orientalist and expert at the NEST Centre.
