Analyst cautions Armenia against anti-Israeli moves Alexander Osovtsev on Caliber.Az

Caliber.Az interview with Professor of Philosophy, analyst of the World Zionist Organization Alexander Osovtsov.

- Immoral anti-Semitism is raging with might and main in Armenia. On October 3, the only synagogue in Yerevan was attacked - the attackers threw a Molotov cocktail into the building, broke out the windows, and poured paint on the walls of the building. On November 15, an attempt was made to set fire to the synagogue. In both cases, the ASALA group took responsibility. Armenian politicians like Vladimir Pogosyan, who openly promises to destroy Jews, are not far behind the terrorists. What do you think caused the next surge of anti-Semitic sentiments in Armenia?

- I do not monitor all the statements of Armenian politicians, but I can confidently say that anti-Semitism in Armenia has reached truly monstrous proportions. This has been known for years: more than three years ago, before the 44-day war, a survey conducted in post-Soviet countries, showed that Jews were hated most of all in Armenia. This country was in the lead by a huge margin. At the bottom of the ranking, interestingly, were Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Armenia itself came to such a policy. I don’t think that after the collapse of the USSR, Israel somehow determined for itself that it wanted to be friends with Azerbaijan, but not with Armenia. At that time, Israel was ready for contacts with everyone and was happy for any interaction. It’s just that the Azerbaijani leadership showed interest in this cooperation, and Armenia took a different path. So, I didn’t really want to. At that time, they were somewhat dizzy with success after the First Karabakh War. In those years, as a Russian politician, I considered it a huge mistake to reject Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s initiative to make peace with Azerbaijan. And for this proposal, the Armenians simply expelled him from power, where the militants soon arrived.

Azerbaijan has developed much more successfully than Armenia if at all we can say that the latter somehow developed. And now it turns out that Israel is to blame for this!? Why, it turns out that Russia betrayed them, too? It was in vain that people in Armenia believed that everyone would rush to fight for them and defend their interests.

- The synagogue arsonists in Yerevan claim that Israel allegedly rehearsed “the extermination of thousands of children, women and old people” in Karabakh, claim that Israel is behind Azerbaijan’s victory, and therefore, Armenian militants “fully support the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance”. They also announced their plans to continue attacks against Jews outside of Armenia. How do they treat such tricks in Israel?

- All accusations against Israel are delusional, and senseless and can bring nothing but harm to the Armenians themselves and those who participate in this. Let's be serious: Armenia recently lost its main war and now the Armenians are threatening Israel. But there is a well-known Russian proverb: “The beaten one is itching.”

I hope that not a single reasonable person in the world, especially in Armenia, including the Armenian prime minister and the majority of people in the Armenian leadership, would think of trying to use force against Israel. This looks very stupid, and given the whole complex of circumstances, Pashinyan’s attempts to reorient himself from Russia to the West, Yerevan now only needed to threaten Israel.

All accusations against Armenians are complete nonsense, of course. Yes, no one hides that Azerbaijan is our closest partner in the region, and, of course, Israel fulfills its obligations in full. But this does not mean that the Israelis participated in the war.

We don’t ask Armenians to be friends, we don’t tell them who they can be friends with and who they can’t. Why on earth are they trying to tell us with whom to build connections and relationships? For us, friendship with Azerbaijan is a critically important issue and there can be no other conversation.

- The ASALA threat also noted that “if the Zionist regime’s armed attacks on the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem and the seizure of the property of the Armenian Church do not stop, our next operation will be carried out outside of Armenia”. This refers to the situation in the Old City, where an Israeli company leased land belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate for the construction of a hotel...

- The story with this piece of land in Jerusalem is generally funny and absurd because this is a purely commercial issue, this is not Armenian land, sorry - this is the land of a specific economic entity. And, of course, it is absurd to think that the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem is literally Armenian, and everything that is here belongs to Armenia and the Armenians. Jerusalem, a city of at least three religions, is home to a huge number of churches, mosques, and synagogues. Each of them is located on some piece of land - it cannot be otherwise. Here are the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and other world relics. And, of course, there are Armenian churches here - no one closes them or oppresses them. There is also an area in Jerusalem called the German Colony, but this does not mean that it is a German colony in the legal sense of the word. What Israel definitely has is freedom of belief and religion.

The conflict that arose between the Armenian church and the entity leasing the land from it - an Israeli company - is a purely commercial issue and can be resolved in an Israeli court. Although in this case, the Armenian church behaved at least strangely and impolitely, concluding a contract to lease part of its territory with an Israeli company, and then, for some reason, changing its mind, demanding that the tenants leave without terminating the contract itself. I don’t want to defend anyone, including an Israeli company, but such issues can be resolved peacefully in court. And you certainly shouldn’t inflate this into an interethnic or interreligious conflict or sow discord. And here they are clearly trying to create something like this.

- Will the Israeli security services take into account the threats of the synagogue arsonists?

- They can't help but take it into account. The careless consideration of these threats was, alas, demonstrated to the whole world on October 7. We have not yet recovered from this trauma and will not recover for a long time. There is no doubt that the Israeli security services are extremely attentive to such statements. Therefore, I do not advise anyone to do something like this – one can be seriously punished. If you are looking for new enemies, go for it if you think you are capable of confronting Israel.