Interview with Yuri Bocharov, an Israeli political scientist and member of the board of the Azerbaijan-Israel international association.
Q: What role do the visits similar to the one a group of Israeli journalists paid to Azerbaijan recently play in boosting Azerbaijani-Israeli relations?
A: If it has a positive nature, any visit and any meeting between representatives of the two countries, no matter at what level it is held, contributes to neighborly ties between our two countries. This kind of meetings allow us to better understand each other, pin hopes and thoughts and of course to take right steps to solve common problems in future.
On the other hand, as to the essence of the visit, there are some questions. The purpose of the visit, timing and most importantly outcome of the visit are obscure. As the saying goes, what do we have in balance? A couple of articles about nothing or about common facts in Israel’s Russian-language media. A small scandal in the Armenian blogs. Is that all? Was it worth distracting so many people from the actual useful work for the sake of this? In my opinion, someone just "appropriated" someone’s money to promote his own image.
Q: Was it appropriate to organize Israeli journalists’ visit to the mass grave of local people (supposedly, Jewish people were also among the victims) massacred by Armenian nationalists in Guba in 1918?
A: There is nothing wrong or shameful about Azerbaijan’s efforts to tell Israel and world community about its pain and problems. This is the same case in Israel. Almost all official and unofficial delegations visit Holocaust monument in Yad Vashem museum at the initiative of the Israeli side.
I think that the Azerbaijani side is not active enough in terms of raising awareness about these problems, including Nagorno-Karabakh. I would say it is not "aggressive" enough especially at international level.
Q: According to media reports, the Azerbaijani officials explained to the Israeli journalists the reasons why Azerbaijan delays the opening of its embassy in Israel. Do you believe the Israeli public is aware of the “Iranian factor” in this matter?
A: I have spoken about this issue more than once and I reiterate one more time that those who really understand Azerbaijan’s complicated position on international arena and in the region are also sympathetic to the situation with the opening of the embassy in Israel.
There are some people who do not understand the problem claiming that it would be better if there were an embassy in Israel.
For some reasons some immigrants from Azerbaijan naively believe that the embassy should and will deal with their problems in Israel.
People, being unaware of key functions of embassy, look forward to its opening as a panacea for their own troubles. In fact, the embassy is just a tool for the work of the foreign office while the most important for us is the core of our relationship. For example, the trade turnover between our countries is much more than the one with other CIS countries where Israel has embassy. Which one is better – a formal embassy or real politico-economic relations? Moreover, Israeli citizens encounter no bureaucratic problems while tripping to Azerbaijan. So, as the saying goes, why to pick unseasoned grapes and then scream that they are sour? Everything has its time.
Q: One of the veterans of the Knesset, Meretz party leader Haim Oron (Jumas), the chief lobbyist of Armenian diaspora, after nearly 20 years of parliamentary activity, has announced he quits politics. To what degree did his departure weaken the position of the Armenian lobby in Israel and the Knesset in particular?
A: In March, after almost 20 years of parliamentary activity, on the eve of his 71st birthday, the chief lobbyist of the Armenian diaspora, one of the veterans of the Knesset, head of the Meretz party retired from politics.
He maintains close relations with representatives of the Jerusalem committee of the "Hay Dat" Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Over recent years, Haim Oron annually raised the issue of recognizing the “Armenian genocide” in the Knesset, but all his attempts failed.
With his departure, the Armenian diaspora loses most loyal lobbyist of its interests in the Knesset and, possibly, the last in this cadence. Actually, no parliamentarian has so far expressed a desire to lead Israel-Armenia inter-parliamentary association instead of him while there was a serious struggle among the Russian-speaking members of the Knesset to lead other inter-parliamentary friendship associations of Israel with other CIS countries.
Q: Is the “Armenian genocide” likely to be raised in Knesset again and may Israeli parliamentarians recognize it any time soon?
A: Unfortunately, part of the Knesset members is mainly engaged in promoting their own image. The main thing for them is to have their names in the pages of newspapers. After all, we say: the politician is alive until newspapers write about him and no matter what they write. It is quite possible that someone will suddenly decide to gain popularity as the protector of Armenian interests especially because lobbyists are paid well. However, raising any issue in the parliament does not mean it will be adopted. It is impossible to address any issue without the help of a coalition, ministers and the head of the state. So, this issue will possibly be raised once again, but it is less likely to be resolved. Anyway, this is not realistic given the current level of relations between our countries.
In any case, one needs to be careful to respond immediately to any Armenian provocation at any level in any country
Leyla Tagiyeva
News.Az
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