PSCRP-BESA Reports No 76 (August 18, 2024)
On Sunday, August 11, Israeli state-owned TV channel “Kan 11” reported that the Army leadership had instructed all personnel to evacuate from Georgia and Azerbaijan amid fears of imminent strikes by Iran in retaliation for the death of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The Israeli military press office and other Israeli media outlets did not cite the actual order.
The IDF press office was approached by numerous Israeli media outlets for clarification, but did not receive any. The only response received by the Russian-language website Vesty.co.il stated that the IDF “is constantly assessing the situation and updating information about the countries to which soldiers are allowed to enter.” On Monday, August 12, Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar banned service members from traveling abroad, but the directive applied to commissioned officers and NCOs, not conscripts.
As the information from “Kan 11” was not confirmed, media outlets in Georgia and Azerbaijan reported “Israeli news” with reference to Kan 11. The publications emphasized that the information of the Israeli media did not concern tourists, but specifically military personnel. This created the impression that Israeli military contingents were present in Azerbaijan and Georgia and that they were the ones being threatened by “Iranian retaliation.”
In addition, around noon on August 12, the Azerbaijan Media Development Agency issued a statement condemning “the spread of false information in the media about the presence of a military contingent from any foreign country on the territory of Azerbaijan.” “We inform you that there is no military contingent from any foreign country present on the territory of Azerbaijan. We strongly condemn information manipulations based on false news’, the agency said.
Understanding that the statement was poorly worded and that no one in the IDF was going to correct it, the Israeli media published a clarification. They explained that they were, of course, referring to Israeli tourists who are subject to military service, primarily reservists. There are fears that these Israelis could be attacked or possibly kidnapped by Iranian agents.
Several Israeli publications, primarily Russian-language outlets, probably due to their knowledge of the region’s geography, raised an additional question: “It is unclear why another Caucasian country bordering Iran was not included in the order. Armenia, as far as is known, also has a significant presence of Iranian citizens, and the level of state contacts between Yerevan and Tehran is much higher than that of its neighbors. Previously, as reported by Iran International, Armenia signed an arms deal with Iran totaling $0.5 billion. Armenia is also believed to allow the Iranians to build bases on its territory and share intelligence with them. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan personally attended the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian, while many other countries sent lower-ranking representatives,” the Detaly website notes.
The logic of not mentioning Armenia is hard to explain, as it is the only country in the region whose border with Iran is technically open, unlike Azerbaijan, whose border crossings are strictly controlled. There are not many Israelis visiting Armenia, while more than 8,000 Israelis visited Azerbaijan in mid-March, a 50% increase over the same period last year.
Georgia also receives thousands of Israeli tourists, but has no border with Iran. The only way, for example, to transport a captured Israeli tourist from Georgia to Iran is through Armenia; border security there is not as tight as on the border with Azerbaijan. Abducting Israeli tourists in Azerbaijan is much more difficult because the local security services are always on high alert. Jewish sites in the country are among the most heavily guarded.
While the Israeli press was trying to clarify the bizarre statement by the IDF press office, Iranian media and Telegram channels launched a campaign to spread fake news about the presence of the Israeli military contingent and bases in Azerbaijan. This campaign also relied on unverified information from the British publication “The Telegraph,” which reported that Iran’s newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian was engaged in a power struggle with the influential Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The president allegedly suggested that Iran should target “secret Israeli bases in Iran’s neighboring countries,” while the Revolutionary Guard advocated a direct attack on Israel.
“The Telegraph” quotes a Pezeshkian’s aide as saying that the president “suggested targeting something related to Israel in the Republic of Azerbaijan or [Iraqi] Kurdistan, informing these countries beforehand, and putting an end to the whole drama.”
In this campaign, media outlets and Telegram channels affiliated with the IRGC were particularly prominent. They used false information about “Israeli bases” to justify military drills in the northern territory bordering Azerbaijan on August 12. According to Iran’s Mehr news agency, citing a local official, the purpose of the drill was to strengthen the defensive readiness of the army’s naval forces. “Reuters” reports that the exercise took place in Gilan province on the Caspian Sea coast.
“Azerbaijan is extremely unhappy with Iran’s naval exercises near its borders. We have deployed our military forces in this area, and if the Zionists have rash intentions, the consequences for them will be extremely serious”, one of the official IRGC Telegram channels stated. According to it, “the Israeli army’s request to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan is an indirect recognition of their presence on the country’s territory.”
Iran’s IRGC-affiliated Tabnak news agency said that a certain TV channel reported a recent “establishment of an Israeli intelligence and military base in the village of Zanglan (near the Iranian border).” The report went on to say that the base was “built by Mossad,” which means that “Iran’s concerns about the intelligence and military cooperation between Baku and Tel Aviv are considered legitimate.”
Armenian media outlets and Telegram channels, with much the same fervor as the IRGC, began spreading false reports about Israeli bases in Azerbaijan, based on a poorly worded statement by the IDF press office. These reports are disseminated by Armenian media both within Armenia and in the diaspora, particularly in the United States.
Even Armenian parliamentarians are involved in spreading these rumors. Following the assassination of the head of Hamas in Iran and the anticipated possible counterstrike, talk has resumed in Iranian circles about the presence of Israeli secret military facilities in the occupied parts of Artsakh (the name Armenians use for the territories of Azerbaijan they had previously occupied) and the real threats they pose. This was reported by National Assembly deputy Tigran Abrahamyan, as noted by the Armenian publication Aysor.”
The MP’s comments about the “Israeli bases” were also quoted by Panorama: “The war against Artsakh and its occupation were of a military-political nature for those forces that were trying to tighten the noose around Iran and expand the front. Today, more than ever before, the Azerbaijani factor is being used in operations against Iran, from intelligence gathering to the preparation of possible operations.”
Armenian orientalist Samvel Shahbazyan, commenting on the situation in Alpha News Telegram channel, also emphasized that “All of this has intensified since Azerbaijan’s close cooperation with Israel, Iran’s number two enemy, grew stronger, and the complete transfer of Nagorno-Karabakh under the control of Baku, and where Israel plans to build its military bases for potential attacks on Iran. According to him, “Armenia now remains the only friendly country, and losing it would be a significant blow to Iran.”
Another Armenian expert, Arabist Armen Petrosyan told Armenpress that despite Israel’s cautious statement regarding the return of its military personnel from Azerbaijan and Georgia, Israel’s presence in Azerbaijan has long been a well-known fact, and emphasizing Georgia was simply aimed at diverting attention from Azerbaijan.
The same false narratives are being spread in the Armenian diaspora. “Israel effectively confirmed its military presence in Azerbaijan and Georgia after issuing a directive ordering its personnel in the two South Caucasian countries to leave immediately amid threats of an Iranian strike,” the California-based Massis website reported. The website quotes Armenian expert Arman Khachatryan: “The information published in the Israeli state media can be viewed as an admission of Israel’s involvement in both Azerbaijan and Georgia. If Israel admits that it has forces there, it means that both Iran and Armenia must make this a topic of discussion.”
Armenian media also became a vehicle for disseminating another false information on the same topic, which was published by smaller, non-IRGC-affiliated sources on various platforms.
“Israel has taken back the weapons supplied to Azerbaijan over the past two years,” reports the Armenian website Aravot referring to the IRGC’s Telegram channel. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sees this as a positive consequence of the conflict with Israel in Palestine,” continues Aravot, commenting the arrival in Azerbaijan of a Silk Way Airlines cargo plane that had departed from the Ovda Air Force Base. The IRGC, obviously, did not comment on this event, but the fake began to spread quickly.
In conclusion, there are two major points to take away from this.
- The IDF press office and other government agencies should be careful in the wording of their statements, as they will be used by Israel’s enemies to harm the Jewish state and its allies, in this case Azerbaijan.
- Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, which in most cases follow different political agendas, must now be viewed as hostiles, at the very least, if not as sworn allies of Iran. Various justifications can be given for their position, but all of them are irrelevant in the confrontation between Israel and Iran.
PSCRP team