“Nonsense not worthy of attention” - thus one of the senior officials of the Foreign Ministry of Israel called the statements by the Chairman of the NGO "In the Name of Human Rights", journalist Einulla Fatullayev, propagated by Israeli media.
Fatullayev said that "mass arrests of religious leaders in Azerbaijan are supported by Israel and the Jewish community." "In this way, the Azerbaijani authorities want to show to the West that Azerbaijan has political Islam, and they resort to such arrests, because with the strengthening of the Islamists Azerbaijan can become a country where religion is a factor in politics," Fatullayev says.
"Israel does not interfere in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan, and therefore never supported or called for the arrest of any citizen of this country," an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said in an interview for VK. "I can say more: we know nothing about the mass arrests of religious activists in Azerbaijan, and I personally do not think there is any truth in the words about these arrests. I have been to Azerbaijan many times, and I got the impression that the arrest of a priest (of course, unless he has committed a serious crime), there is almost impossible. Azerbaijan is a nation that knows how to combine loyalty to their religion with the true values of tolerance and openness to all the best that exists in other cultures. Personally, I was very impressed with the Azeri model of the place of religion in society and its relationship to the state. It is clear that today Iran and its yes-men will try to discredit the current leadership of Azerbaijan, but I do not think they will succeed in this. First, the world knows the value of statements made by Tehran and its surrogates. Second, these representatives sometimes say such nonsense that it does not even need refutation ... "
At the same time, the interlocutor of VK refused to comment on recent events in Baku related to the arrest and deportation of persons suspected of having links with Iranian terrorist organizations. "I can only say that we are following very closely the events in Azerbaijan, we are extremely grateful to our Azeri friends for what they do for the safety of our citizens out there and for the local Jewish community, and we will be ready to render all possible assistance to our friends as soon as they ask for it." To the remark "they have not asked yet" he shortly replied: "No comment!"
However, as reported by the popular Israeli website IzRus.co.il, almost all Israeli civil servants’ working trips to the southern republics of the CIS have been cancelled in recent weeks. This is especially true for the Caspian region. This directive applies to employees of various ministries and state companies. As a consequence, they had to cancel their pre-planned trips, including important negotiations in one of the Caspian states.
In some cases, notice of cancellation of visits was given in advance. Often, however, an official received the relevant notice already upon his arrival to the country used by state officials as a "staging post" on the way to the southern republics of the CIS. Then the higher authorities reported that the abolition of the ban on visits to countries of that region will be announced upon receipt of further notice from the General Security Service.
