Aliyev steps in as a mediator between Israel and Turkey as Azerbaijan flexes diplomatic muscles

Talks between Israel and Turkey aimed at de-escalating tensions in Syria began in Azerbaijan on Wednesday, sources told Reuters.

The negotiations are part of an effort to establish channels between Ankara and Tel Aviv to prevent their overlapping interests in Syria from escalating into an actual armed confrontation, a Turkish source said.

The talks are the beginning of the process, a Turkish source said.

The news was later corroborated by an Israeli source, which said that Tel Aviv had ‘made it unequivocally clear that any change in the deployment of foreign forces in Syria, in particular the establishment of Turkish bases in the Palmyra (Tadmor) area, is a red line’.

While already tense, Turkey’s relations with Israel have soured even further since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ‘butcher of Gaza’.

Turkey also joined South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In light of this strained relationship, Azerbaijan is poised to be the perfect intermediary. Turkey has long been Azerbaijan’s closest ally, and Baku has developed a strong alliance with Tel Aviv in recent years, which includes military cooperation and overlapping regional interests, particularly concerning forming a bulwark against Iran — Israel’s archenemy, and a country that Azerbaijan has always had a difficult relationship with.

On Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the role his country could play in fostering talks between Turkey and Israel, saying that ‘both countries are close friends of Azerbaijan’.

‘The process [of normalisation], to my mind, should not stop, and Azerbaijan is doing everything in its position to facilitate the process’, Aliyev said.

Marc Schneier, a rabbi from the US who is reportedly close to the Aliyev government, told the Israeli media outlet Ynet that ‘Azerbaijan is Israel’s biggest supporter in the Muslim world. Aliyev’s commitment to Israel is genuine’.

‘These are very authentic relations, both in his dealings with Israel and the Jewish people’, Shneier said.

Azerbaijan’s diplomatic moves

It is not the first time that Aliyev has played an intermediary role between Turkey and Israel.

Following more than a decade of frozen diplomacy between the two countries, Turkey and Israel resumed full diplomatic ties in 2022 — which Aliyev said on Wednesday he had helped come to fruition.

The importance of Azerbaijan’s alliance with Israel was also recognised by the US in a letter from President Donald Trump to Aliyev published on Thursday.

Trump began by saying ‘I wish you and all the people of Azerbaijan a spectacular Nowruz’ — a holiday that ended on 24 March — before going on to say, ‘I appreciate Azerbaijan’s support and friendship for our partner Israel and applaud the steps you and Armenia are taking to bring peace to the region’.

Separately, there have also been key further diplomatic developments involving Turkey and Azerbaijan in recent days.

On Friday, Aliyev traveled to the Turkish city of Antalya, where he held talks with Erdoğan, as well as the head of Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus, Ersin Tatar.

At the same event on Wednesday when Aliyev spoke about Israel, he also said that ‘our brothers in northern Cyprus [...] deserve to have their own state. They deserve it by history and by their actions’.

Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus is internationally recognised as sovereign Cypriot territory — Turkey is the only country that recognises its independence.

The positive comments notwithstanding, Azerbaijan has so far refrained from officially declaring its support or recognition of its independence.

Nonetheless, the pro-government Azerbaijani media outlet APA reported on Friday, citing northern Cyprus’s Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Ataoğlu, that Azerbaijan will host an event ‘dedicated to the recognition’ of northern Cyprus.

Israel signs deal granting Azerbaijan’s SOCAR the rights to explore natural gas production

The agreement was the latest sign of increasingly close ties between Israel and Azerbaijan.

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