The Thousand Youths for Palestine movement has been protesting in front of the Istanbul representative office of the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR, which also has investments in Turkey. The first demonstration made a splash, but the one that really made a splash was the protest they held in Taksim after it was revealed that Turkey did not cut off trade with Israel while Israel's Gaza massacre was continuing. After this action, some members of the movement were beaten and detained. At the same days, Turkey also announced that it had largely cut off trade with Israel. Until that day, this was sometimes denied by the government, sometimes it was said, "There is, but we are actually exporting to Palestine."It is really interesting that while Islamist, centre-leftist and Kurdish politicians condemn Israel for this operation that amounts to genocide, some nationalist accounts, even on social media, have a different tone when it comes to Azerbaijan. To be honest, i think pessimistically. Because there is hostility towards both Arabs and Armenians.
Trade between Azerbaijan and Israel is more comprehensive. We are talking about the exchange of both arms and oil.
The operation launched by Israel in Gaza, which cost the lives of more than 35 thousand people, has been continuing for eight months, and trade between Israel and Azerbaijan continues. Two days ago, on May 31, the Thousand Youth Movement for Palestine once again protested in front of the company's representative office in Istanbul. This time, the activists tried to enter the building and threw red paint at the entrance, this was a harsher action than the first. Two days later, on June 2, 13 people from this movement were detained in a dawn operation.
Throughout this process, the comments under the movement's X account were very interesting. While some found the movement justified and supported it, others chose to justify the police operations by stating that Turkey had made a profit from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and therefore "brother state" Azerbaijan should not be criticized. For some, there was no need for such justifications, Arabs were not the brothers of the Turks, and whoever wanted to destroy the Azerbaijan-Turkey brotherhood should be blamed. Moreover, SOCAR had investments in Turkey.
It is really interesting that while Islamist, centre-leftist and Kurdish politicians condemn Israel for this operation that amounts to genocide, some nationalist accounts, even on social media, have a different tone when it comes to Azerbaijan.
So much so that there are even those who hold Arabs and Palestinians responsible for all of Israel's brutality. To be honest, i think pessimistically. Because there is hostility towards both Arabs and Armenians.
Yes, these circles do not criticize Azerbaijan in the trade business because the Aliyev regime is a power that fights with Armenia and defeats it. Therefore, whatever it does, Azerbaijan must be supported.
An Islamist and conscientious group, which unfortunately is not very large, continues to criticize Azerbaijan and support the actions that exploit this dirty trade.
Here, of course, our perspective should be solely human-centered. Thousands of civilians have been losing their lives for months, and huge demonstrations protesting Israel have been held in European countries every weekend. Even though governments are not on the same wavelength, democratic forces are making their voices heard. Some European countries have already started to recognize Palestine as a state.
In Turkey, nationalists and political Islam that has become powerful, have their own agenda. Obviously different rules apply there.
