Turkey and Israel both played key roles in Azerbaijan’s recent victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now, weeks after the ceasefire, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is trying to restore relations between his two allies, senior Israeli officials say.
The big picture: Drones and other weapon systems from both Turkey and Israel helped Azerbaijan achieve military superiority over Armenia. But relations between Turkey and Israel have been frozen for most of the past decade.
Driving the news: Aliyev raised tensions between Israel and Turkey in a recent appeal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Israeli officials said.
- Aliyev’s advisers told their Israeli counterparts that Erdoğan responded positively to the idea of improving relations.
- Erdoğan has a history of belligerent comments about Israel, but Aliyev’s advisers claimed he is not anti-Israel, but was turned against Israel by aides who no longer advise him.
- Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said on a recent appeal with his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, that Azerbaijan believes it is a good time for Israel and Turkey to mend fences.
What they say: “Aliyev and his senior advisers have said they want both their close friends – Turkey and Israel – to return to normal relations and they are willing to help make that happen,” an Israeli official told me.
- Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on this story, as did Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser.
Flashback: Israeli-Turkish relations have deteriorated since the Gaza War of 2008, and contacts were almost completely frozen following the 2010 “Gaza Flotilla Incident” in which Israeli commandos attacked activists who tried to break through an Israeli blockade to get aid to Gaza. to deliver.
- Then-President Barack Obama facilitated a trilateral telephone call with Netanyahu and Erdoğan in 2013 to try to advance a reconciliation agreement.
- Those talks lasted until 2016, and the final deal was unraveled two years later when a new crisis erupted over the Temple Mount.
The last: There have been several signs in recent months that Turkey wants to re-cooperate with Israel, in particular due to the 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 harm its relations with Greece and Cyprus in order to restore relations with Turkey.