Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 4
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
Still, the fact that Washington is keen on criticizing Azerbaijan much more than other nations in the region is hard to miss, senior writer/editor at Netsmart Maayan Jaffe's article posted at The Hill website said.
"Even criticism of U.S. arch-enemy Iran is now less frequent than that aimed at America's ally Azerbaijan," the author wrote. "Moreover, the U.S. seems to be content with Azerbaijan's neighbor, Armenia's tightening domestic repression and its total surrender of sovereignty to Russia by joining the Customs Union on humiliating terms."
For Azerbaijanis, all this justifiably appears as a well-coordinated negative campaign, the article says.
"Given Israel's experience with well-funded campaigns against the Jewish state, such suspicions shouldn't be all that surprising," the author wrote.
Heightened anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims are against Jews in Europe and now in the U.S. But inside the mess there is an almost striking glimmer of hope. And that is in the relationship between Israel and the Muslim-majority country Azerbaijan, the article says.
In mid-September, Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan, Rafi Harpaz, met Azerbaijan ambassador to the U.S., Elin Suleymanov. The pair traveled together in New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to talk about the close ties between the Jewish State and the Muslim country, the article says.
In his talks, Suleymanov noted how frequently, incessantly and, according to him, unfairly, the
country is singled out for criticism on human rights grounds by U.S. media and the administration, too.
Throughout its history, the people of Azerbaijan have remained open, and that includes not only to women and the West, but also to the Jews.
Harpaz says there is no anti-Semitism in Azerbaijan.
"Currently, Azerbaijan supplies Israel with 40 percent of its oil," the article says. "And
when the last war with Hamas erupted and many countries stopped flying planes to Israel, Azerbaijan continued."
"The West often misunderstands the need to maintain Azerbaijan's secular and open society," Suleymanov said. "Yet, these efforts to maintain a more open society are criticized as political pressure."
"In an era when it seems the Jews are increasingly isolated and that Israel is often on its own in the battle for the eradication of Muslim extremism, it is comforting to know that Muslims and Jews can get along and that Israel has a partner in Azerbaijan," Jaffe wrote.