Azerbaijan-Israeli relations

[sev]

Aram G. Sargsyan, the president of the Armenia Democratic Party, today referred to the geopolitical situation changes and possible developments.

“The Americans make concrete steps for Armenia and Azerbaijan to come to a settlement till 14 October, for Serzh Sargsyan to go to Turkey and this is a precondition”,-announced A. Sargsyan.

As a proof, he mentioned that Hillary Clinton, not taking into account that the RA president is on vacation, had a phone talk with the president “being concerned that the Madrid principles won’t be settled either in the coming months or even years”.

“The passive activity of Russia is for getting assured and even intervened in the US actions. In this case it is essential for Armenia to adopt a very perfect strategy. Just one wrong step can have dangerous consequences”-stated A. Sargsyan.

According to the politician Russia is securing his positions in Turkey. “Now the Turks regret about the eight contracts signed in Istanbul, according to which Russia becomes the head of the institutions built, both the builder and the owner”.

A. Sargsyan approved this and mentioned that we should be happy that our allied power has a stronger influence on Turkey, discourages Turkey to make any steps against Armenia, and presses on opening the border, which is a necessity for us.

A. Sargsyan said that after Georgia left CIS, a question stood how Russia is going to provide weapons to Gyumri? According to him, Russia has also found the way by the Caspian Sea and Iran.

“A strategical way must be originated Russia-Iran-Armenia. These courtiers have not had any aggression during past 30 years and it would be perfect if these countries create a barrier against the ill wishes coming from the West, the South and the East”,-said A. Sargsyan.

Russia-Iran-Armenia military barrier against the war calls - aysor.am - Hot news from Armenia

[sev]

Karabakh Coping With Baby Boom

Medical services in Nagorno-Karabakh are struggling to cope with a surge in child births more than nine months after a mass wedding that was organized and sponsored by a Moscow-based Armenian businessman.

The Karabakh-born entrepreneur, Levon Hayrapetian, had 678 local couples marry in a single open-air ceremony on October 16, 2008 to assist in a government policy that seeks to boost Karabakh’s population and thereby make it less vulnerable in case of renewed war with Azerbaijan. Hayrapetian covered their wedding expenses and paid each couple $2,500 as a bonus.

The results of the extraordinary event can be observed at the sole maternity hospital in the Karabakh capital Stepanakert which is grappling with a higher-than-usual influx of women preparing to give birth. Doctors there had to cram extra beds into hospital wards and draw up waiting lists for delivery.

“We may now have as many as 14-15 births a day,” the hospital director, Gohar Hakobjanian, told RFE/RL. “Last month we had a total of 192 births. We are experiencing difficulties.”

“Pregnant women are complaining about waiting lines,” she said. “We are coping with that with extreme strains.”

The number of children born in Karabakh already rose by 16 percent to 1,306 in the first half of this year. “The tough war years are gone, life has improved and people want to have more kids,” said Hakobjanian.

Material incentives offered by the Karabakh government to newlyweds are also a key factor behind the baby boom. The government pays 100,000 drams ($270) for a first and second child born in every family in addition to a one-off payment of 300,000 drams made to a newlywed couple. Families having a third child get 500,000 drams from the state.

“Judging from the indicators of the first seven months of 2009, the results of our policy have been satisfactory,” said Samvel Dadayan, head of the family department at the Karabakh Ministry of Social Security.

Official statistics show the number of marriages in the Armenian-populated region nearly doubling in the first half of 2009 after reaching the highest level in 20 years in 2008. The authorities in Stepanakert also reported a 29 percent drop in divorces during the same period.

Karabakh Coping With Baby Boom - «Ազատ Եվրոպա/Ազատություն» ռադիոկայան © 2009

[proIsrael-nonIsraeli]

Baby boom?

It reminds me of a story that happened in Chicago some years ago.

There was unusually big snow in January of one your in Chicago.
City was practically paralyzed for few days, well, at least entertainment-wise.
Guess what did Chicago get in September of that year!
You guessed it, baby boom!

[hyelander]

AZERBAIJAN AND ISRAEL PURSUE PARTNERSHIP
Mina Muradova: 8/31/07


Azerbaijan’s growing ties with Israel illustrate the extent to which this Caspian Sea energy player is striving to keep the options open for regional alliances.

On August 15-18, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Liberman paid an official visit to Azerbaijan to explore what were termed mutual political and economic interests.

“Azerbaijan is [an] interesting and [a] strategic country for Israel,” commented Liberman at the end of his visit, APA news agency reported. The strategic benefits work both ways. While Israel sees Azerbaijan as a potential ally among Muslim countries and a key energy supplier, Azerbaijan is interested in investments by Israeli companies and in support from Jewish communities abroad to promote Azerbaijani interests with Western governments.

In particular, Liberman highlighted potential purchases of Azerbaijani oil and gas. Israel is one of the largest purchasers of Azerbaijani hydrocarbons. Annual trade turnover between the two countries, largely driven by oil, stands at about $1 billion, according to the Azerbaijani foreign ministry.

“It is one of the highest levels of Azerbaijan's trade turnover with other countries. We intend to increase it in future," commented ministry spokesperson Khazar Ibragim. With that aim in mind, during Liberman’s three-day visit talks were held on cooperation in agriculture, information technologies, tourism and environmental protection, news agencies reported.

Israel currently imports much of its oil and gas via a pipeline that extends from Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast to Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba and leads into the Red Sea. In April 2006, Tel Aviv and Ankara announced plans to carry water, electricity, natural gas and oil to Israel by way of a proposed Ceyhan-Ashkelon-Eilat passage. Such a corridor would allow for the shipment of Caspian and Central Asian oil and gas to the Middle East while bypassing Russia entirely. Observers believe that to avoid difficulties with other Muslim countries Azerbaijan will keep the stress on economic and cultural ties with Israel, and steer clear of the political. Azerbaijan currently chairs the influential Organization of Islamic Conference, made up of 57 Muslim countries – a position which makes its ties with Israel open to additional scrutiny.

Political analyst Zardusht Alizadeh, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, considers relations between Azerbaijan and Israel “cloud-free” for now, but notes that Muslim states in the region will expect Baku eventually to show its hand, particularly in regard to the Palestinian territories. Any response, he notes, must be even-handed.

"Although Baku is continuing its balanced policy, Azerbaijan’s position is delicate,” commented Alizadeh. “Baku should reject its middle-of-the-road attitude and condemn the terrorism and radicalism that exists on both sides.” [Zardusht Alizadeh is on the board of the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation - Azerbaijan. EurasiaNet operates under the auspices of the Open Society Institute in New York].

Part of that delicacy stems from the fact that Baku is also casting its sights on the Jewish Diaspora, and its links with Azerbaijan’s Jewish community of roughly 9,000 people. In an August 15 interview with APA news agency, Natan Sharansky, who formerly handled Jewish Diaspora policy as an Israeli cabinet minister, termed conditions for Jews within Muslim Azerbaijan as “very significant for us.”

In turn, the Azerbaijani government has used those links to lobby for a favorable hearing for Azerbaijan’s case against the current ban on aid to Azerbaijan under Article 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ibragim termed the role of the Jewish Diaspora on this issue, among others, as “constructive and positive.”

While subject to potential criticism, that campaign is all part of Baku’s foreign policy balancing act, he continued. “Azerbaijan builds its foreign policy pursuing its own national interests and taking into account subtleties and realities existing in the region and in the world in general.”


Editor’s Note: Mina Muradova is a freelance reporter based in Baku.

from EurasiaNet Business & Economics - Azerbaijan and Israel Pursue Partnership

[hyelander]

AZERBAIJAN MUM ABOUT ISRAELI SPY PLANE, SATELLITE PROJECTS
Shahin Abbasov: 8/17/09


A month and a half after Israeli President Shimon Peres' trip to Azerbaijan, both Baku and Tel Aviv are keeping mum about reported plans for the joint manufacture of reconnaissance planes and satellites.

During Peres' June 29 state visit, the first by an Israeli head of state, official mention of the deals was only made under the catch-all rubric of "strengthening ties" in the military sector. Representatives of leading Israeli defense industry companies -- Aeronautics, Elta Systems, ELISRA and IMI -- were among the delegation of 75 Israeli businesspeople that accompanied Peres to Baku.

Azerbaijani and Israeli media in July, however, reported that an agreement about production of such equipment had been signed during Peres' visit. Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesperson Eldar Sabiroglu, however, told EurasiaNet that he has no information about any military equipment deals with Israel.

Israel's envoy to Baku has shown similar reticence. In an August 4 interview with the Russian-language Israeli news site IzRus, Tel Aviv's new ambassador to Azerbaijan, Michael Lavon-Lotem, named agriculture and healthcare as the priorities for Israeli-Azerbaijani economic cooperation. No mention was made of the defense industry.

But in a July 2 article, IzRus, citing unnamed Israeli sources, reported that Baku has signed an unspecified "document" with the Israeli defense firm Aeronautics for the construction of a plant in Azerbaijan to manufacture reconnaissance and military pilotless vehicles. The daily Haaretz, a newspaper influential among government circles, quoted former Israeli Ambassador to Baku Arthur Lenk as saying that the deal took four years of negotiations.

Other forms of military cooperation are reportedly also in the works. Israeli Elta Systems, a defense electronics firm, will help Azerbaijan produce a TecSAR satellite system, which can take high-definition photos of ground surfaces in all weather conditions, according to IzRus's sources.

Another joint project allegedly under discussion is production of a rendition of Israel's 12-person Namer armored personnel carriers.

Such projects could be useful as Azerbaijan tries to shift its military to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) standards, commented Jasur Sumerenly, editor-in-chief of the Military-Azerbaijan news agency. Israel is known for its high-quality NATO-standard armaments.

"Because of the [Nagorno-] Karabakh conflict [with Armenia], NATO member-states refrain from selling large amounts of arms to Azerbaijan," Sumerenly said. "Israel is among the few states which is willing to supply any amount of arms to Azerbaijan . . ."

Azerbaijan's military, in fact, has used Israeli armaments for several years, Sumerenly continued. Almost all communication systems in the Azerbaijani army, for instance, are of Israeli or Turkish origin, he noted, citing unnamed military sources.

Two Israeli publications have provided further details. In August 2008, the magazine Military Review of Israel reported that Azerbaijan bought TAR-21 machine guns, Orbiter and Aerostar pilotless vehicles as well as 122, 160 and 300 millimeter rocket systems from Israeli suppliers.

One month later, in September 2008, Haaretz reported that the Israeli defense ministry had signed several contracts "worth hundreds of millions dollars" with the Azerbaijani government for machine guns with ammunition, howitzers, artillery/rocket pieces and defense communication systems armament. The newspaper also reported that howitzers and grenade launchers from a joint Israeli-Kazakhstani project would be supplied to Azerbaijan.

In both cases, the reports lacked clear sources. Azerbaijani defense ministry spokesperson Sabiroglu told EurasiaNet that he does not have information about any contracts with Israel.

Nonetheless, Sumerenly cautions that Israel makes up only a small slice -- some "5 to 10 percent" -- of the estimated $500 million - $600 million Azerbaijan spends each year on armaments. The bulk of Azerbaijan's equipment comes from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. And with the need to purchase spare parts to keep that material in working order, that trend is unlikely to change, he said.

That low level of Israeli arms purchases explains in part why Iran, which strongly protested President Peres' visit to Baku, has made no comment about Baku's plans for future arms purchases from Israel, he continued. Ongoing domestic political turbulence within Iran plays a role, too.

After Peres' visit, some political analysts believe that Baku can easily ignore any tough criticism from Iran about its Israeli military ties.

"The Peres visit showed that Baku is confident enough to pursue its own foreign policy without serious consideration of Tehran," commented Rasim Musabekov said. [Rasim Musabekov is a member of the board of the Open Society Assistance Foundation -- Azerbaijan. EurasiaNet.org is financed by the Open Society Institute's Central Eurasia Project, but functions separately from OSAF-Azerbaijan.]

Attempts at military equipment deals with Israel can be traced back to February 2007, when Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Efrahim Snekh visited newly named Defense Industry Minister Yaver Jamalov to discuss prospects for cooperation. No details about the talks were released.

The relationship, however, has not been without its hiccups -- at least for easy travel logistics between Baku and Tel Aviv.

In late July, the Israeli airline Arkia announced plans to start regular flights to Baku from Tel Aviv on condition that armed Israeli security officers would be on board the flights and would handle security for passengers boarding in Baku. Azerbaijan's aviation regulatory agency AZAL has rejected the terms, calling them "inadmissible."

An AZAL spokesperson said that talks between the two sides are ongoing, and that hopes exist that "the issue will be solved."


Editor's Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based in Baku. He is also a board member of the Open Society Institute-Azerbaijan.

Eurasia Insight - Azerbaijan Mum about Israeli Spy Plane, Satellite Projects

[hyelander]

Israeli Consul General to Los Angeles calls on Jewish community in US to support Azerbaijan

17 Sep 2009

Los Angeles. Zaur Hasanov – APA. Roundtable on Azerbaijan-Israel cooperation was held in Los Angeles on September 16, APA’s US bureau reports. Azerbaijani Consul General to Los Angeles Elin Suleymanov and Israeli Consul General Yaakov Dayan addressed the roundtable. Elin Suleymanov underlined the development of Azerbaijan-Israel cooperation. He also spoke about the strategic relations between Azerbaijan and US.

Yaakov Dayan called Israeli President’s visit to Azerbaijan an important event and appreciated welcoming of Shimon Peres in Azerbaijan. He said that Azerbaijan plays an important role in the region and is a tolerant country. Dayan called on the Jewish community in the US to support Azerbaijan.

Representatives of the Jewish community in Los Angeles also attended the event.


APA - Israeli Consul General to Los Angeles calls on Jewish community in US to support Azerbaijan