Iran's pressure on Azerbaijan reaches new heights Opinion by Rachel Avraham

In her article for Israel Hayom, journalist Rachel Avraham says Tehran is believed to be behind the attack on Ahmad Obali, the chairman of the International Relations Committee at the South Azerbaijan National Freedom Front and supporter of Israel, and his son.

Caliber.Az reprints the article.

It was recently reported in the Azerbaijani media that Ahmad Obali, the chairman of the International Relations Committee at the South Azerbaijan National Freedom Front and the head of Gunaz TV, was critically injured and is presently fighting for his life, after being attacked by terrorists. In a separate incident, his son Deniz was also attacked and is presently in an intensive care unit. Iran is believed to be behind the attacks.

Ahmad Obali is a famous South Azerbaijani dissident journalist critical of the Iranian regime. The attacks on him and his son are only the latest incident in which Iran has put increased pressure on Azerbaijan. This follows the attack upon the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran last International Holocaust Memorial Day, which resulted in the brutal murder of a senior-level security official, and the attempted assassination of Azerbaijani MP Fazil Mustafa, a known critic of the Iranian regime.

The attack upon Obali also occurred as Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Fariz Rzayev is in Israel to appear as a guest speaker at the Herzliya Conference and attend other events. Around the same period of time that Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister visits Israel, Press TV published an article titled "Zionists infiltrate Azerbaijan," where the Iranians accused Israel of assisting Azerbaijan in setting up smart villages in Karabakh due to the "potential for surveillance and spying this opens up." They also criticized the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology for cooperating with Azerbaijan.

The Press TV article accused Azerbaijani Jews of "colonizing Palestine," while Azerbaijan "continues to welcome significant arms supplies from the Zionist entity including drones and artificial intelligence. In return, Azerbaijan also supplies some 40 percent of Israel's oil imports." The article also criticized the visit of then-Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Baku in October 2022, the opening of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tel Aviv last April and the visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to Baku that same month. In the article, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that Iran "cannot remain indifferent" to the "conspiracy" of Israel against it "from the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan."

Interestingly, soon after this article in Press TV was published, the terror attack against Obali, who gives frequent interviews to Israeli journalists, occurred. In fact, in an interview with an Israeli news outlet last year, he stated: "The perception that if you're Shiite, you're against Jews and Israel is completely wrong. The perception that the entire Iranian people are against Israel is even more wrong. I believe that most Iranian people do not see an enemy in Israel." In a recent interview he gave to Israel National News, he described himself as a "friend of Israel," who called upon the Jewish state to support Iran's ethnic minorities over the Shah, as this was the best way to topple the Iranian regime.

Ironically, this attack occurred around the same period of time that the 17th anniversary of the Azerbaijani protests against Persian racism took place in Berlin and major cities across South Azerbaijan. In the wake of the commemoration of the 17th anniversary of these protests, the Iranian government has resorted to extensive repressive acts, including the militarization of Azerbaijani cities and towns, the arrest of prominent Azerbaijani activists, and the harassment of many others.

According to a recent press release, "the protests in May 2006 were a popular Azerbaijani response to a contemptuous insult to the integrity of the nation of Azerbaijan and Turks in general that was published in the daily official newspaper in Iran. The cartoon, drawn by Mana Neyestani and published on May 12, 2006, was meant to entertain children but was deemed as a tacit racist attack by the whole nation of Azerbaijan to indoctrinate children." Back then, over a million South Azerbaijanis protested in 50 cities and towns across Iran. Following these protests, the Iranian regime murdered 50 protesters and maimed hundreds of individuals, while detaining 5,000 activists and imprisoning hundreds.

Since then, Iran has continued to engage in racist rhetoric against South Azerbaijanis and to teach in schools bigoted Aryan rhetoric: "The social fabric of the Azerbaijani provinces is now in ruins and transforming Azerbaijani masses into internally displaced people. Now the nation of Azerbaijan in Iran asks the critical question, if the Iranian government fails to protect Azerbaijani Turkish, Lake Urmia and Azerbaijani forests and other natural sites, the Azerbaijani social fabric is also not protected in Iran. Therefore, what claim do they have to sovereignty in South Azerbaijan? Instead of fulfilling its responsibility to protect, the Iranian state conspires to inflict racist tension and to balkanize its territory. Therefore, the time to ask critical questions and to protest has arisen."

Following these developments, Manel Msalmi, an advisor for the European Parliament, stated in an exclusive interview: "The Azerbaijani community just like the other non-Iranian populations in Iran is denied the right to learn its own language and show any belonging to its tradition and culture. After a series of arbitrary arrests of Azerbaijani human rights activists, the Iranian regime showed its brutality and discrimination as well as its inhumane treatment towards non-Persian nations living in Iran.

"The Azerbaijani population in Iran is one of the largest non-Persian groups and targeting prominent Azerbaijani activists who are calling for equal rights and liberties is evidence that the regime is afraid of the non-Persian uprisings."

Clearly, the Iranian regime feared the influence of Obali and how the spark within him crying for a free South Azerbaijan could ignite the masses in Iran to continue to fight for their freedom, which is why they tried to murder him in a terror attack. Israeli American journalist Caroline Glick, who also interviewed him in the past, tweeted: "He is a great, gentle man. We should all pray for his full and speedy recovery."