STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: ISRAEL AND AZERBAIJAN
Kenan Guluzade

The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service
July 13, 2009 Monday

BAKU, Azerbaijan _ The recent visit by the president of Israel to
Azerbaijan, and the outrage it inspired in Iran, shows just how complex
international relations have become in this volatile part of the world.

President Shimon Peres’ visit to Baku in late June was the first
time a high-ranking official from the Jewish state has visited this
overwhelmingly Muslin nation. During his stay, the two countries
signed an agreement dealing with cooperation in the fields of science,
education and culture, as well as a pact related to information and
communication technologies.

The two countries have long maintained cordial relations: Israel
has maintained an embassy in Baku since the early 1990s, soon
after Azerbaijan declared independence from the collapsing Soviet
Union. Azerbaijan has yet to open an embassy in Israel.

Local analysts note that maintaining close ties with Israel presents
difficulties for a country like Azerbaijan, which has a large Muslim
population.

"Azerbaijan is a secular state, but most of the population is Muslim
and overfriendly relations with Israel might be misinterpreted by
allies in the Organization of the Islamic Conference as a breach of
Muslim unity," said Boyukaga Agayev, head of South Caucasus Research
Center.

That was clearly what happened in Tehran, which expressed outrage
over the visit.

"Tehran actively objects to us opening an embassy in Israel, as well
as to the visit of officials from that country to Baku," Agayev said.

The day before Peres arrived, Iran sharply reminded Azerbaijan of its
feelings, urging Baku to close the Israeli embassy and describing the
visit of the Israeli head of state as an insult to the Islamic world.

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, replied that Baku
would do no such thing, and reminded Tehran that Baku had its own
grievances with Iran.

"Iran’s declaration about the need to close the Israeli embassy in
Azerbaijan is surprising," he said, noting that Iran continued to
"receive officials from Armenia at the highest level." Azerbaijan
and Armenia remain locked in a decades-long dispute over the region
of Nagorny Karabakh.

Tehran eventually recalled its ambassador to Baku "for consultations"
while Peres was in the country.

What became clear though the incident is that ties between Azerbaijan
and Israel have become increasingly important to both countries.

The value of trade between the two nations has risen to $3.6 billion
a year, due in large part to Azerbaijani oil exported to Israel.

Political scientist Rasim Musabayov says commercial relationships
will trump ideology every time.

"Israel is interested in a relationship with a secular Muslim country,
which is at the same time an energy supplier," Musabayov said. "Israel
is already the third largest buyer of Azerbaijan’s oil in terms of
volume." And there may be more trade ahead.

"Israel wishes to export agricultural products and technology to
Azerbaijan and, as it emerged during Peres’ visit, military equipment
as well," Musabayov said.

And the fact that tens of thousands of Azeri Jews have migrated to
Israel in recent years further serves to bind the nations together
culturally, as well as economically.

"The economic and political relationship [between the two states]
makes the partnership of Azerbaijan and Israel inevitable _ in spite
of the possibly negative reaction of the OIC and Iran above all,"
said analyst Agayev.

Of course, not everyone welcomed Peres’ visit.

Haji Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, a Muslim scholar and head of the Center for
Protection of Freedom Conscience and Religion, said he reacted "very
negatively from the point of view of Muslim unity" to the Jewish
president’s visit.

But few others followed his lead, and Peres’s trip went off peacefully,
leaving Iran further isolated, and Israel with an unlikely friend.