Armenian synagogue defaced in suspected revenge for Israel’s pro-Azerbaijani stance

Unidentified individuals throw red paint on the façade of a synagogue in Armenia, in an apparent payback for Israel’s weapon sales to Azerbaijan.

Following the incident yesterday outside the Mordechay Navi Jewish Religious Center in the capital Yerevan, a text circulating in pro-Armenian social media pages says the incident is retaliation for Israel’s position as well as dozens of rabbis’ recent criticism of rhetoric by Armenian officials who equated the Holocaust to Azerbaijan’s actions against Armenian troops and civilians.

“The Jews are the enemies of the Armenian nation, complicit in Turkish crimes and the regime of Aliyev, stained with the blood of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh,” reads the text, referring to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.

Artsakh is the name of the breakaway pro-Armenian state in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan captured last month in a military campaign.

“The Jewish state provides weapons to Aliyev’s criminal regime, and Jews from America and Europe actively support him. Turkey, Aliyev’s regime, and the Jews are the sworn enemies of the Armenian state and people,” the text also reads.

It also references a letter cosigned by dozens of rabbis, many of them from Chabad, who criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for equating Azerbaijani actions with those of the Nazis during the Holocaust. His remarks belittle the “terrible suffering experienced by the victims of the horrific Holocaust and the Jewish people at large,” the rabbis wrote.

“If Jewish rabbis in the United States and Europe continue to support Aliyev’s regime, we will continue to burn their synagogues in other countries. Every rabbi will be a target for us. No Israeli Jew will feel safe in these countries,” the text circulating in pro-Armenian channels reads.

The Mordechay Navi Jewish Religious Center is the only synagogue in Yerevan, where several hundred Jews live.