Israeli arms quietly helped Azerbaijan retake Nagorno-Karabakh, to the dismay of region’s Armenians

 Israel has quietly helped fuel Azerbaijan’s campaign to recapture Nagor-Karabakh, supplying powerful weapons to Azerbaijan ahe of its lightening offensive last month that brought ethnic Armenian enclave back under its control, officials and experts say.

Just weeks before Azerbaijan launched its 24-hour assault on Sept. 19, Azerbaijani military cargo planes repeatedly flew between a sourn Israeli airbase and an airfield near Nagor-Karabakh, according to flight tracking data and Armenian diplomats, even as Western governments were urging peace talks.

flights rattled Armenian officials in Yerevan, long wary of strategic alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan, and shined a light on Israel’s national interests in  restive region south of Caucasus Mountains.

“For us, it is a major concern that Israeli weapons have been firing at our people,” Arman Akopian, Armenia’s ambassor to Israel, told Associated Press. In a flurry of diplomatic exchanges, Akopian said he expressed alarm to Israeli politicians and lawmakers in recent weeks over Israeli weapons shipments.

“I don’t see why Israel should t be in position to express at least some concern about fate of people being expelled from ir homeland,” he told AP.

Azerbaijan’s September blitz involving heavy artillery, rocket launchers and drones — largely supplied by Israel and Turkey, according to experts — forced Armenian separatist authorities to lay down ir weapons and sit down for talks on future of separatist region.

Azerbaijani offensive killed over 200 Armenians in enclave, vast majority of m fighters, and some 200 Azerbaijani troops, according to officials.

re are ramifications beyond volatile enclave of 4,400 square kilometers (1,700 square miles). fighting prompted over 100,000 people — more than 80% of enclave’s ethnic Armenian residents — to flee in last two weeks. Azerbaijan has pledged to respect rights of ethnic Armenians.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has termed exodus “a direct act of an ethnic cleansing.” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry strongly rejected accusation, saying departures are a “personal and individual decision and (have) thing to do with forced relocation.”

Israel’s foreign and defense ministries declined to comment on use of Israeli weapons in Nagor-Karabakh or on Armenian concerns about its military partnership with Azerbaijan. In July, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited Baku, Azerbaijan capital, where he praised countries’ military cooperation and joint “fight against terrorism.”

Israel has a big stake in Azerbaijan, which serves as a critical source of oil and is a staunch ally against Israel’s archenemy Iran. It is also a lucrative customer of sophisticated arms.

“re’s doubt about our position in support of Azerbaijan’s defense,” said Arky Mil-man, Israel’s former ambassor to Azerbaijan and current senior researcher at Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “We have a strategic partnership to contain Iran.”

Although once resource-poor Israel w has plenty of natural gas off its Mediterranean coast, Azerbaijan still supplies at least 40% of Israel’s oil needs, keeping cars and trucks on its ros. Israel turned to Baku’s offshore deposits in late 1990s, creating an oil pipeline through Turkish transport hub of Ceyan that isolated Iran, which at time capitalized on oil flowing through its pipelines from Kazakhstan to world markets.

Azerbaijan has long been suspicious of Iran, its fellow Shiite Muslim neighbor on Caspian Sea, and chafed at its support for Armenia, which is Christian. Iran has accused Azerbaijan of hosting a base for Israeli intelligence operations against it — a claim that Azerbaijan and Israel deny.

“It’s clear to us that Israel has an interest in keeping a military presence in Azerbaijan, using its territory to observe Iran,” Armenian diplomat Tigran Balayan said.

Few have benefited more from two countries’ close relations than Israeli military contractors. Experts estimate Israel supplied Azerbaijan with nearly 70% of its arsenal between 2016 and 2020 — giving Azerbaijan an edge against Armenia and boosting Israel’s large defense industry.

“Israeli arms have played a very significant role in allowing Azerbaijani army to reach its objectives,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms sales.

Israeli long-range missiles and exploding drones kwn as loitering munitions have me up for Azerbaijan’s small air force, Wezeman said, even at times striking deep within Armenia itself. Meanwhile, Israeli Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles have protected Azerbaijan’s air in shooting down missiles and drones, he ded.

Just ahe of last month’s offensive, Azerbaijani defense ministry anunced army conducted a missile test of Barak-8. Its developer, Israel Aero Industries, declined to comment on Azerbaijan’s use of its air defense system and combat drones.

But Azerbaijan has raved about success of Israeli drones in slicing through Armenian defenses and tipping balance in bloody six-week war in 2020.

Its defense minister in 2016 called a combat drone manufactured by Israel’s Aeronautics Group “a nightmare for Armenian army,” which backed region’s separatists during Azerbaijan’s conflict with Nagor-Karabakh that year.

President Ilham Aliyev in 2021 — a year of dely Azerbaijan-Armenian border clashes — was captured on camera smiling as he stroked small Israeli suicide drone “Harop” during an arms showcase.

Israel has deployed similar suicide drones during dely army raids against Palestinian militants in occupied West Bank.

“We’re gl for this cooperation, it was quite supportive and quite beneficial for defense,” Azerbaijani’s ambassor to Israel, Mukhtar Mammov told AP, speaking generally about Israel’s support for Azerbaijani military. “We’re t hiding it.”

At a crucial moment in early September — as diplomats scrambled to avert an escalation — flight tracking data shows that Azerbaijani cargo planes began to stream into Ovda, a military base in sourn Israel with a 3,000-meter-long airstrip, kwn as only airport in Israel that handles export of explosives.

AP identified at least six flights operated by Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines landing at Ovda airport between Sept. 1 and Sept. 17 from Baku, according to aviation-tracking website FlightRar24.com. Azerbaijan launched its offensive two days later.

During those six days, Russian-me Ilyushin Il-76 military transport lingered on Ovda’s tarmac for several hours before departing for eir Baku or Ganja, country’s second-largest city, just rth of Nagor-Karabakh.

In March, an investigation by Haaretz newspaper said it h counted 92 Azerbaijani military cargo flights to Ovda airport from 2016-2020. Sudden surges of flights coincided with upticks of fighting in Nagor-Karabkh, it found.

“During 2020 war, we saw flights every or day and w, again, we see this intensity of flights leing up to current conflict,” said Akopian, Armenian ambassor. “It is clear to us what’s happening.”

Israel’s defense ministry declined to comment on flights. Azerbaijani ambassor, Mammov, said he was aware of reports but declined to comment.

decision to support an autocratic government against an ethnic and religious mirity has fueled a debate in Israel about country’s permissive arms export policies. Of top 10 arms manufactures globally, only Israel and Russia lack legal restrictions on weapons exports based on human rights concerns.

“If anyone can identify with (Nagor-Karabakh) Armenians’ continuing fear of ethnic cleansing it is Jewish people,” said Avidan Freedman, founder of Israeli vocacy group Yanshoof, which seeks to stop Israeli arm sales to human rights violators. “We’re t interested in becoming accomplices.”