Baku works to rebuild bridges between Ankara and Tel Aviv Turkish Minute on Azerbaijan’s mediation role

The Turkish Minute news website has published an article on Azerbaijan's possible mediation efforts to reconcile Israel with Türkiye. Caliber.Az reprints the piece.

Azerbaijan has emerged as a discreet mediator between Türkiye and Israel, using its strong bilateral ties with both nations to ease tensions and align regional interests following the regime change in Syria, Azerbaijani media reports said, citing diplomatic and regional experts.

The speculation on their role gained momentum after Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev visited Israel and met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and President Isaac Herzog on December 8 and 9.

Analysts suggest that Hajiyev’s visit went beyond the usual bilateral talks and focused on promoting dialogue between Türkiye and Israel, whose relations have been strained over the past year due to Türkiye’s harsh rhetoric on Israeli military action in Gaza. Observers believe that Azerbaijan has a central role to play in preventing potential clashes between the two nations, especially as their geopolitical interests now intersect on Syrian territory.

The collapse of now-former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has left a power vacuum and brought Türkiye and Israel into direct proximity as neighbouring players in the region. During his trip, Hajiyev conveyed the greetings of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the Israeli president and discussed regional issues, including recent developments in Syria. While on the surface the visit appears to be routine, experts suspect it has a deeper significance as Azerbaijan quietly works to rebuild bridges between Ankara and Tel Aviv.

With Iran and Russia effectively expelled from Syria and Türkiye and Israel now de facto neighbours in the region, tensions are high.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline further undergirds Azerbaijan’s importance in this trilateral equation. The pipeline, which transports Azerbaijani oil to the Mediterranean via Türkiye, has become an important energy supply route for Israel, accounting for a large share of its crude oil imports. Despite Türkiye’s public stance against Israel’s policy in Gaza, oil supplies have continued to flow through the BTC pipeline.

“A large portion of our oil comes from Azerbaijan. As you know, the Azerbaijani company SOCAR [State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan] is about to announce a tender for gas exploration in Israel. Our countries also collaborated on security and the joint fight against terrorism. We’re seeing increasing cooperation in people-to-people relations, business and culture,” said George Deek, Israeli ambassador to Baku.

The significance of Hajiyev’s visit to Israel was not lost on Turkish pundits, who pointed that after the visit President Erdoğan spoke on the phone with Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev on December 10.

Feyzi İşbaşaran, a former lawmaker from Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party who is now critical of Erdoğan, emphasized the potential role of Hajiyev’s visit as an attempt at mediation.

“Azerbaijan’s presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev recently met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Israel. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had previously acted as a mediator between Türkiye and Israel. It is likely that President Aliyev informed President Erdoğan about this meeting,” İşbaşaran said on the social media platform X, commenting on a phone call between Aliyev and Erdoğan that took place on December 10, after Hajiyev’s visit.

Barçın Yinanç, a prominent Turkish journalist, echoed this view on T24 news website, pointing to Azerbaijan’s history of behind-the-scenes diplomacy between the two nations.