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Vahe Sarukhanyan

Azerbaijani Cargo Flights from Arms Supplier Israel Continue

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and his minions regularly complain about the military supplies provided by third countries to Armenia.

Recently, for example, Aliyev announced that Baku cannot sit by idly while France, India and Greece arm Armenia. He said these states "do it openly and demonstrably, trying to thus prove something to Baku.”

Armenia and its military suppliers counter these statements by arguing that every country has the right to have an army and arm itself for defense.

Azerbaijan, which does not miss opportunities to raise such unfounded hysteria, certainly does not talk about its own military imports.

Armenian PM Pashinyan in an April 22 interview with British journalists said the following.

“As I have repeatedly said that no country can challenge the right of another country to have a combat ready army and I think having a strong army is sometimes used for war, but having such an army is also important for peace, for balancing the powers. That's also the reason why when Azerbaijan raises those questions, referring particularly to Armenia's acquisition of weapons, which is not more than 15-20% of Azerbaijan's acquisitions in terms of cost and volume, and our acquisitions are mostly of defensive nature, we respond to those statements.”

Israel: Azerbaijan's Main Military Supplier 

In March 2023, the Israeli daily Haaretz wrote that between 2016 and 2023 Azerbaijani cargo planes landed at least 92 times at Israel's Ovda air base, the only one where explosives may be flown into and out of the country.

Ovda-Baku flight (ZP 4612), 04.04.2024

Ovda is of strategic importance for Israel. Haaretz noted that the transportation of explosives through Israel's main airport, Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, is prohibited because it is in a densely populated area. Ovda is in the southern desert part of Israel, some 45 km north of the city of Eilat.  

Ovda airfield, 05.09.2011

Haaretz revealed that Azerbaijani cargo flights to Ovda increased when Azerbaijani military operations took place in Artsakh or on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. 

Following the Haaretz article, Hetq studied such flights and found that four to Ovda took place in April-June 2023.

Even before the forced depopulation of Artsakh Armenians, from August 15 to September 2, 2023, Azerbaijani cargo planes left for Ovda four more times.

From September 2 to September 19 2023, when Azerbaijan invaded Artsakh, Baku continued to receive explosive weapons from Ovda.

If we include the above-mentioned four flights, we get the following picture. (Flight numbers are indicated in brackets, ZP is the code of the Azerbaijani "Silk Way Airlines" cargo airline that made the flights).

15.08.2023 – Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
29.08.2023 - Baku-Ovda (ZP 4631), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4632)
01.09.2023 - Baku-Ovda (ZP 4641), Ovda-Ganja (ZP 4642)
02.09.2023 - Ganja-Ovda (ZP 4651), Ovda-Ganja (ZP 4652), Ganja-Baku (ZP 4652)
05.09.2023- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
13.09.2023- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
14.09.2023- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4621), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4622)
17.09.2023- Ganja-Ovda (ZP 4642), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4643)

These statistics show that prior to Baku’s planned attack against Artsakh, Azerbaijani cargo planes flew to the Israeli explosives delivery point eight times in one month before the assault.

In August-September, the same planes also flew to Turkey, the main military ally of Azerbaijan.

After the full occupation of Artsakh and its forced depopulation, the frequency of flights to Ovda decreased, but the flights continued. The following flights have taken place so far.

21.11.2023- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
12.12.2023- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
21.12.2023 - Baku-Ovda (ZP 4631), Ovda-Tallinn/Estonia (ZP 4632), 22.12.2023 - Tallinn-Ankara (ZP 4633), Ankara-Baku (ZP 4634)
26.12.2023- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
03.01.2024- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4621), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4622)
18.02.2024- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
29.02.2024- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
04.04.2024- Tel Aviv-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)
18.04.2024- Baku-Ovda (ZP 4611), Ovda-Baku (ZP 4612)

Top photo: Silk Way Airlines Il-76TD-90 (Azerbaijani registration: 4K-AZ100) over the skies at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, 11/20/2022, Eyal Zarrad/jetphotos.com

Comments (1)

ED
Turkey and Israel need each other this include the criminal regime in Baku too! US and Israel know that Turkey is shedding only and only crocodile tears for Palestrina and so on! If Turkish president is going to accuse Israel of Genocide, be sure Turkey is only after making “political business/deal “ with Israeli.... Everyday we read in the news how Turkish president Erdogan and other Turkish officials are apparently crying for Gaza and Palestinian people. In the reality Turkey (as well its puppet regim in Azerbaijan) could halt for example transit of oil for Israel or close there area space for just a couple days and cause the biggest harm to Israeli economy. While Turkish president Erdogan is engaged in shedding non-stop crocodile tears for Gaza and making headlines with the term “Genocide” , in n reality both Azerbaijan and Turkey are protecting Israeli economy in different ways.. Iranian government is very smart they know that Turkish officials are only engaged making headlines (even with term Genocide) and are shedding crocodile tears for Palestinian , but in reality Israel knows that Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance is engaged in different kinds of “business with Israel” and this alliance will DO nothing against Israel ,even if Israel would destroy whole Palestinian people: Armenian Government should be aware of dangers coning from Israel.

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