Turkey and Israel both played key roles in Azerbaijan’s recent victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now, a few weeks after the ceasefire, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is trying to repair relations between his two allies, senior Israeli officials tell me.
The whole picture: Drones and other weapons systems in both Turkey and Israel have helped Azerbaijan gain military superiority over Armenia. But relations between Turkey and Israel have been frozen for most of the last decade.
News management: Aliyev raised tensions between Israel and Turkey in a recent call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli officials said.
- Aliyev’s advisers told their Israeli counterparts that Erdoğan had responded positively to the idea of improving relations.
- Erdoğan has a history of belligerent comments about Israel, but Aliyev’s advisers have argued that he is not anti-Israel, but has been incited against Israel by assistants who no longer advise him.
- Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said in a recent call with his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, that Azerbaijan considers it a good time for Israel and Turkey to repair the fences.
What are they saying: “Aliyev and his senior advisers have said they want to see both of their good friends – Turkey and Israel – return to normal relations and are willing to help make it happen,” an Israeli official told me.
- The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the story, as did Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser.
Flashback: Israeli-Turkish relations have deteriorated since the 2008 Gaza war, and contacts were almost completely frozen after the 2010 “Gaza Fleet incident” in which the Israeli command attacked activists trying to break an Israeli blockade to deliver. help Gaza.
- Then, President Barack Obama facilitated a trilateral phone call with Netanyahu and Erdogan in 2013 to try to encourage a reconciliation agreement.
- Those talks lasted until 2016, and the eventual agreement was resolved two years later, when a new crisis broke out on the Temple Mount.
The most recent: There have been several signs in recent months that Turkey wants to re-engage with Israel, especially in connection with its dispute with Greece and Cyprus over natural gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
- But Israeli officials say they will be very careful, given their suspicions about Erdoğan’s true intentions.
- In any case, Israel will not affect its relations with Greece and Cyprus in order to remedy relations with Turkey.