Ilham Nagiyev
Jerusalem Post, May 11, 2023
“… the opening of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Israel on 29 March 2023 should be seen as the logical result of 30 years of cooperation and strategic partnership.”
Azerbaijan is one of the few Muslim countries to enjoy extensive cooperation and a strategic alliance with Israel. Despite differences in religion, belief and outlook, relations between the two countries today can be considered a unique historical example in international relations.
The close ties with Israel are first of all connected with the presence of Jewish communities that settled in Azerbaijan down the ages. The fact that the “Mountain Jews” have lived in Azerbaijan for almost 1,500 years, and the Ashkenazi and Georgian Jews settled in Baku and Oghuz in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and that they have been able to live here and preserve their cultural identity can be seen as the foundation for relations between the countries.
The “Qırmızı qəsəbə” or Red Settlement is a historic Jewish town in Azerbaijan and is a major location where Jews live according to their religious and cultural traditions. The Red Settlement with its population of over 20,000 is the only town in the world outside Israel and the USA with a mostly Jewish population. The Museum of the Mountain Jews which opened here in 2020 and the synagogues built or restored in different periods have preserved the people’s traditions and heritage and aim to pass them on safely to future generations.
The two peoples’ shared historical memory in the south Caucasus and the environment of tolerance and coexistence that has evolved between them developed even further in terms of quality and quantity when Azerbaijan gained its independence for the second time in the 1990s. Not by chance was Israel one of the first states to officially recognize the independence of Azerbaijan and establish diplomatic relations. Diplomatic and economic ties between independent Azerbaijan and Israel have continued to expand since the 1990s.
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