No, Armenia is not antisemitic. But Azerbaijan certainly is

News broke last Friday that Armenia had decided to formally recognize Palestine as an independent state. This news was shocking for Armenia observers, as the decision seemed to come out of the blue. Media outlets in Azerbaijan began circulating stories about Armenia’s clear antisemitism despite the fact that Azerbaijan has recognized Palestine as an independent state since the 1990s. While we can only speculate as to why Armenia chose this moment to recognize Palestine, it is possible that it came as a precondition for the normalization of relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, which has gained steam lately.

Perhaps the most pressing question in light of the announcement is whether Armenia, the first and oldest Christian country in the world, is actually anti-Israel. While Armenia’s decision to recognize Palestine is concerning, it is important to note that it is quite literally the last country in the entire Middle East to do so, and it likely came as a result of external pressure. Armenia is an ancient biblical nation, and it most certainly does not identify with the values of radical Islam.

Additionally, according to Israel’s National Security Secretariat, Armenia is the safest country for Jews to travel to in the entire Middle East (outside of Israel). In fact, it is safer than Azerbaijan and most of Western Europe. Similarly, Armenia has served as a safe haven for Jews seeking to escape persecution in Russia. So much so, that the Jewish community has gone out of its way to highlight the fact.

In all fairness, Armenia does have its qualms with Israel. First, it feels betrayed by the fact that Azerbaijan imports nearly 70% of its weapons from Israel. These weapons are routinely used against Armenians, including in the ethnic cleansing of 120,000 Armenian Christians from Artsakh. Additionally, while Armenia recognizes and mourns the Holocaust, Israel does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. While these matters amount to frustration, Armenians also understand that Israelis are not inherently anti-Armenian and that, like Armenians, they are trying to survive in an extremely hostile neighborhood.

While Armenians are preoccupied with fending off attacks from Azerbaijan, Israel is preoccupied with confronting the Iranian threat. In fact, the Iranian threat is the pretext for the entire Israeli-Azerbaijani relationship. Azerbaijan’s proximity to Iran has made it an important base of operations for Israeli intelligence operations against Tehran. To be clear, Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel is a matter of geopolitical calculation and not one of religious pluralism.

In addition to gaining access to advanced Israeli weapons, Azerbaijan also uses its relationship with Jews to create a façade of tolerance while waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the region’s Armenian Christians. For example, following the 2023 ethnic cleansing of Artsakh that saw 120,000 Christians driven from their ancient homeland, Baku reflexively pointed to its positive relationship with Jews as evidence of its “tolerance” for religious minorities.

A deeper investigation of Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel is one of manipulation and not genuine affinity for the Jewish people. First, as previously mentioned, Azerbaijan recognized Palestine as an independent state back in the early 1990s, 30 years before Armenia recognized Palestine. Second, according to UN Watch, Azerbaijan has a 100% anti-Israel voting record at the UN. For context, this means that Azerbaijan has voted against Israel on 153 resolutions at the UN. This is hardly the behavior of a nation that loves the Jewish people.

It should also be pointed out that Azerbaijan’s closest ally, Turkey, remains a stalwart supporter of Hamas. The relationship between Ankara and Baku is, in fact, so close that the two presidents describe themselves as “one nation, two states.” Following the Oct. 7th terrorist attacks against Israel, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister stated, “Azerbaijan supports the Palestinian people in their struggle for statehood, the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state principle, with the capital of Palestine in East Jerusalem.”

Despite Azerbaijan’s antisemitic tendencies, it knows that it can not afford to lose Israel as a strategic partner. To that effect, it works diligently to paint its chief rival, Armenia, as being antisemitic in order to isolate Yerevan from Israel. Shortly after Armenia announced that it would recognize Palestine, Azerbaijani went on a media blitz to tout its support for the Jewish people and decry Armenia’s supposed antisemitism.

Unfortunately, it seems that Azerbaijan may even be willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the Armenian and Jewish people divided. Since 2023, Armenia’s Mordechai Navi Synagogue has been vandalized four times. Interestingly, at least some of the incidents seem to have been carried out by non-Armenians who left immediately after the attack. Several members of Armenia’s Jewish community, including Armenia’s Chief Rabbi, went on record stating that they believe the attacks are being instigated by foreign actors in order to paint Armenia as being antisemitic. According to Jewish community member Roman Lapin, the attacks were an “undoubted provocation, the roots of which do not grow from the Armenian community, but from outside. This is evidenced by the fact that absolutely every attack was accompanied by external media pressure and was used in Armenophobic propaganda, with details that were known to the attackers and us, but were not made public in the Armenian media.”

While Armenia’s decision to recognize Palestine is troubling, it is not indicative of a deeper antisemitism. Azerbaijan, which touts itself as one of Israel’s most stalwart defenders, made the very same decision 30 years ago. Armenia certainly has reservations about Israel, but that does not change the fact that it has been a safe haven for Jews in the Middle East. Even so, Azerbaijan will continue to work diligently to portray Armenia as an enemy of the Jewish people to preserve its ties with Jerusalem. Let’s hope that the world can see through the façade.