Last March, Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Tel Aviv, and thus Azerbaijan became the first country with a Shiite Muslim majority with an embassy in the State of Israel. This is after an Israeli embassy has been operating in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for about thirty years. The new ambassador to Israel is Mukhtar Mammadov
In recent years, the Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau has been operating in Israel, headed by Mrs. Jamila Talibzadeh, but there was no diplomatic embassy. We met with Ambassador Mammadov to hear about the goals he set for himself in his new role, especially in the field of tourism
The volume of mutual trade reached 1.7 billion dollars in 2022, and there is potential for much more. One of the main goals of the new Ambassador is to promote economic ties between Azerbaijan and Israel through deeper cooperation
Ambassador Mammadov: “We are learning from Israel about water desalination, we want to import more drippers for agriculture, and there is an Israeli company that is building a plant for the production of medicines in Azerbaijan. On the other hand, since the 1990s we have been selling to Israel about 40% of its oil consumption. This is alongside agricultural crops such as wheat kernels and tomatoes.” i
Question: Israel is known as a technological country. Does it affect the bilateral trade? i
Ambassador Mamedov: “We need your knowledge in high-tech fields. Azerbaijan also invests in startups in Israel, and we are looking for cooperation to build startups in our ecosystem in Azerbaijan. We will soon start cooperation in the field of space. We published an international tender to build two communication satellites, and the winner of the tender was The Israeli Aerospace Industry Company”.
Question: So in light of this, how do you explain that until now your country did not have an embassy in Israel? i
Answer: “This did not prevent the good relations between the heads of the two countries. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited Baku and is considered as a personal friend of our President, Ilham Aliyev, who also visited Israel, and of his father, Haider. All the time, there are reciprocal visits by ministers from both governments. In recent months, your foreign minister, Eli Cohen, and the tourism minister, Haim Katz, visited us.” i
Question: You mentioned Eli Cohen’s visit to Baku. In Israel it was announced that he had invited President Aliyev for a reciprocal visit. When is this going to happen? i
Answer: “It is still unclear. Preparation for a presidential visit takes months, and I have not yet been instructed to prepare for such a visit.” i
Ambassador Mammadov adds an important piece of information: “We are Israel’s gateway for export and import cargo to all Central Asian countries”. i
There are countries in Asia without access to the sea, such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to which cargoes go through Azerbaijan. “Cargo flights are costly, and it is better to transport goods by sea to the Caspian Sea and from there continue by train. That is why Israel transports goods through us, even when we are not the final destination.” i
Before Mokhtar Mammadov was appointed ambassador to Israel, he served as Azerbaijan’s deputy minister of education, and even then he engaged in cooperation with Israel. I ask who he collaborated with and on what? i
Ambassador Mammadov: “For the past 4 years, we have been working with the Ort-Israel network to develop curricula in engineering, innovation, and computers. We have trained more than 200 teachers according to these programs. This school year, approximately 150,000 Azeri students are studying according to the special programs we developed with Ort. A delegation of Ort-Israel teachers recently arrived in Baku to train our teachers in science teaching. We also have collaborations between universities. A few weeks ago I was invited to a graduation ceremony at the HIT Institute of Technology in Holon, where Azeri students also graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. The Hebrew University is also starting to accept students from Azerbaijan this year for biotechnology studies”. i
Our blog is about Jewish tourism, and I wanted to talk with Ambassador Mammadov about these issues. The ambassador refers to the field of tourism as the “dessert” of our conversation, while for us it is the “main course”. i
Question: Azerbaijan is considered a Shiite Muslim majority country. How many Jews live in Azerbaijan? i
Ambassador Mammadov: “It is impossible to determine precisely, but the estimate is 20 to 30 thousand Jews. People of many nationalities and religions live in Azerbaijan. The majority of the population is Shiite Muslim and there is a Sunni minority. There is a minority of Russians, Talish minorities and Turks. Catholic Christians and Protestants. Ashkenazi Jews And Buharis and Sephardim Jews. For us, they are all equal citizens, and our identity cards do not record the nationality and religion of each citizen. So we have no way of knowing who is Jewish.” i
Q: Where do they live? i
“Most of them live in the town of Guva. Guva is a special town where all the residents are Jews only. There are also Jewish communities in Baku, the capital, in Sumgaitand Ganja. The Jews live in comfort and well-being and with great personal security. The government respects them, and every year the President congratulates them for the Jewish New Year and Passover. President Ilham Aliyev also sent greetings for the Jewish Rosh Hashanah to President Herzog, and through him to the entire Israelis.” i
Among the Azeri Jews, Ambassador Mammadov also counted the 80,000 Jews who immigrated to Israel since the 1990s, and raised large families in Israel
“There are also Azeri Jewish communities in Acre, Kiryat Yam, Yokneam, and Holon. The embassy also maintains close contact with them, and I visit them. They have been absorbed in Israel and have reached greatness here. The mayor of Ma’alot is an Azeri, and so are the deputy mayors of Holon, Yokneam, and Kiryat Yam. Many of the Azeri Jews are teachers, doctors, and lawyers. Most of them have dual citizenship, Israeli and our own. Many of them have families that remain in Azerbaijan and they often visit them at celebrations such as weddings and bar mitzvahs.” i
Q: What can you teach us about Israeli tourism to Azerbaijan? i
A: “Every time Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visit, they also raise the tourism issue. There is a lot to do to increase tourism. There is a saying in Azeri culture – ‘It is better to see it once than to hear it a hundred times.’ I invite the Israelis to come and see our country at least once, and of course more.” i
Q: What are the statistics? i
A: In 2019, before the Covid, about 15,000 Israelis came to us. Last year, 24,000 Israelis arrived. This year, until August alone, 22,000 have already arrived. It is an optimistic opening that this year we will break the last record. We have already started working on campaigns to promote tourism in 2024. We have sent delegations of journalists and bloggers and YouTubers, and we will continue to send to spread and publicize the advantages of Azerbaijan. In order to further develop tourism to this area, we will soon send a delegation of Israeli Orthodox journalists who will see the area for themselves and publicize the synagogues and Jewish tourist sites there.” i
“I invite Israelis to visit Azerbaijan. There is a lot to see and do here. One of the biggest attractions here is the Formula 1 race, and I was surprised to find out how few Israelis are aware of this international event. One of my goals is to fix this by next year.” i
Q: How can we get to Azerbaijan? i
A: “A total of two and a half hours of flight. Less than three hours! Azerbaijan Airlines, which operates flights from Israel to Baku, recently opened a promotion for families ‘buy a pair of tickets, and get the third one for free.” i
Q: We know that Azerbaijan is a Muslim-majority country, and there were two attempts by Iran to harm Israelis. Is it safe for Israeli tourists? i
A: “Azerbaijan is very safe for tourists from all over the world, and also for Israelis. There were indeed attempted attacks about twenty years ago, but we managed to prevent them, and since then there have been no more such attempts. Women can walk freely in Baku even in the middle of the night. You can see rabbis on the streets with beards and traditional Hasidic clothing, and no one thinks of harming them. It is very safe there, more so than in Europe. In Germany and France there is police guarding synagogues. We do not need to guard synagogues, because it is safe there.” i
Q: Guva and the Red City intrigue the religious public because they are settlements on the purity of the Jews. Are you doing any tourism promoting there? i
A: “Our government’s approach is to let the laws of supply and demand operate independently. The government does not interfere. Local tour operators and tourism wholesalers have put together all kinds of packages that also include Jewish sites, and they sell these packages to Israeli travel agencies, groups and individuals. This arrangement works very well.” i
Q: But there is a need for infrastructures that are beyond the capacity of private tourism operators. Like roads, train lines, hotels, etc.? i
A: “The government is responsible for infrastructure. We have paved a network of highways. The trip from Baku to Guba today takes less than two hours. Hotels are not our responsibility, but businessmen and hoteliers who build according to market requirements. In the Guba area and the Red City, there are plenty of lodging and hospitality options, at levels Popular and at a 5-star level. Guba is not only a Jewish heritage site, but also an international ski resort area with sophisticated facilities and cable cars, and the hotels were also built to host the skiers.” i
Ambassador Mammadov surprised me with his knowledge of tourism issues from Israel. The ambassador asked me something about the Israeli travel company ‘Asia Travel’ which is among the travel companies that take organized trips to Azerbaijan. This is the first time that any ambassador has shown interest in such a resolution of private Israeli tourism companies
