BY DIANA GALSTYAN
Special to Asbarez
Dozens of Armenians demonstrated in front of Israeli Defense Ministry building in Tel Aviv on Friday protesting Israel’s arms sales to Azerbaijan.
The activists demanded that Israel stop its arms sale to Azerbaijan, asserting that the goal of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime is to carry out ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Artsakh.
The protesters carried Kamikaze drone-shaped posters emblazoned with the “Made in Israel” moniker. Azerbaijan deployed the Kamikaze drones during its aggressive attacks against Artsakh last fall, which were actively aided by Turkey.
The demonstrators chanted “Aliyev, terrorist” and “Erdogan, terrorist” referring to the Azerbaijani and the Turkish presidents. The protesters also carried a poster depicting Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, which was targeted and shelled by Azerbaijani forces during last fall’s war.
Among the speakers were Armenian and pro-Armenian activists, including Israeli historian and scholar, Prof. Yair Auron, and Yoav Loeff, an adjunct professor of the Armenian studies department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After the speeches, the picketers sang Armenian patriotic songs and recited the works of great Armenian poets.
The rally was organized by the Union of Armenian Communities in Israel. The organizers called on the Armenian communities worldwide on to join them and organize protests in front of Israeli embassies around the world.
Harout Baghamian, the head of the Union of Armenian Communities in Israel and a member of the Armenian National Committee of Jerusalem presented remarks in English, which can be viewed in the video below.
