The fall of the Assad regime after more than five decades is especially significant because it undermines the destabilizing influence of Iran and Russia in the region, according to an Azerbaijani historian visiting Israel.

The scholar from Baku’s frank remarks on the unrest in the Middle East highlight the alliance between the Jewish state and the Shi’ite country, ties that continue to flourish despite the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“For us, anything that undermines the destructive influence of Iran and Russia is a positive development,” Fuad Akhundov told JNS in an interview in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. “This [the overthrow of Bashar Assad] significantly undermines two very destabilizing forces in the Middle East.”

He noted that Azerbaijan was historically divided between Russia and Persia, both of which view the former Soviet republic as part of their backyard.

“We both live in a very tough neighborhood,” Akhundov said. “We are not blessed with our neighbors, which is another thing that bring Azerbaijan and Israel closer.”

Ties that bind

Last year, Azerbaijan made history by becoming the first Shi’ite country to open an embassy in Israel.

For Israel, ties with Azerbaijan—which shares a 428-mile border with Iran and now supplies nearly 50% of the Jewish state’s oil—are of strategic importance. At the same time, Azerbaijan is a leading purchaser of Israeli military hardware, which helped lift Baku to victory in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War with archrival Armenia in 2020.

Baku’s strong relations with Jerusalem have angered the Islamic Republic. An Iranian attacked Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran in January 2023, killing the head of security and wounding two guards, while pro-Israel Azerbaijani lawmaker Fazil Mustafa was targeted in an attempted assassination in Baku in March 2023.

‘Before you get to the dragon you have to cut off the hands’

The Azerbaijani scholar, who is delivering lectures in Israel this week on the history of the Jewish community of Azerbaijan, opined that the fall of Damascus would likely have a domino effect in the region. He added that the Syrian regime was just the “tip of the iceberg” created by Iran.

“We see who the invisible hands were,” he said. “But before you get to the dragon, you have to cut off the hands.”

Akhundov said that, despite the uncertainties over the Syrian rebels, the Iranian and Russian pullback from the country was surely a positive development. It exposed the extent to which Israel’s military campaign against Iran’s proxies has left the Islamic Republic weakened, while also revealing that the war in Ukraine has destabilized Russia.

“Their abilities to influence areas outside their countries has diminished, which is good for Azerbaijan and for Israel,” he said.

‘Azerbaijan Jewry is Azerbaijan’s jewel’

The Azerbaijani researcher, who led Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, on a guided tour of Jewish sites in Baku during their state visit last spring, said he was proud to come from a people that has always maintained cordial relations with its Jewish neighbors over the centuries.

“One of the indications of tolerance is the way Jews are treated in society,” he noted.

About 25,000-30,000 Jews live in Azerbaijan today, while tens of thousands of Jews from there immigrated to Israel.

Historically, Azerbaijan has been home to three distinct Jewish communities: European Jews, who settled in the area during the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and during World War II; Jews from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, who settled mainly in Baku during the early part of the 20th century; and Mountain Jews, the most sizable and ancient group.

“Azerbaijan Jewry has always been Azerbaijan’s jewel,” Akhundov said.

Image - Researcher Fuad Akhundov delivers a lecture at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem on the Jews of Azerbaijan, Dec. 10, 2024. Credit: Azerbaijani Embassy in Tel Aviv.