Hikmet Hajiyev, an aide to the Azerbaijani president, has revealed that Azerbaijan contacted Israel to voice its concerns following the Israeli cabinet’s June 28 decision to formally recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide.  

Hajiyev, during a recent interview with Haber Global, a Turkish 24-hour national news television channel, said that the Israeli Knesset’s decision was a “red line” for Baku.

“Since the interests of brotherly Turkey have always been a priority for Azerbaijan, this issue is an unchanging ‘red line’ for us,” Hajiyev proclaimed.

Hajiyev said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered his government to immediately contact Israel following the Knesset’s decision since it was deemed “unfair, does not reflect historical reality, and unacceptable.” 

Hajiyev added that Israel took Baku’s concerns seriously.

The resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide has since been dropped from the Israeli Knesset’s voting agenda and has lead to claims that Ankara and Baku put diplomatic pressure on Israel to do so.

Hajiyev’s remarks on the matter appear to prove these claims.

“Where there is no Turkey, there is Azerbaijan, and where there is no Azerbaijan, there is Turkey. We resolutely respond to every step directed against the interests of our countries and will continue to do so in the future,” Hajiyev told Haber Global.

Regarding the normalization of relations between Baku and Yerevan, Hajiyev said that the process of drafting a new constitution in Armenia seems to have begun and that once territorial claims are removed from it a final peace treaty can be signed.

Azerbaijan has declared that it will not sign a final peace treaty with Armenia until it removes a section of the Armenian constitution that references the country’s 1990 Declaration of Independence. Baku claims that the declaration includes a 1989 unification act with Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We expect that the provision that stipulates territorial claims to Azerbaijan and Turkey will be removed from the Armenian Constitution,” Hajiyev said. “The process of adopting a new constitution will soon begin in Armenia.. We are receiving such signals. A referendum may be held. After excluding territorial claims to Azerbaijan in the preamble of the Armenian constitution, we see no obstacle to signing a final peace treaty,” he concluded.

Photo: Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in Tel Aviv on September 8,  2023. (Azerbaijani Embassy in Israel)