Armenian militant group says Jews, Israelis are ‘sworn enemies,’ pledge to ramp up attacks on synagogue due to alleged Israeli support of Azerbaijan in ongoing conflict.
By World Israel News Staff
A synagogue in Armenia was vandalized by unknown perpetrators on Tuesday, with those responsible for damaging the site framing the destruction as an act of revenge against Israel for supplying Azerbaijan with military equipment.
Pictures and videos on social media showed masked men smearing red paint the façade of the Mordechay Navi Jewish Religious Center in Yerevan, the country’s only synagogue.
Hours later, members of two Armenian militant groups released statements on the Telegram messaging app, taking credit for the vandalism and warning that they would escalate their attacks on synagogues, should the Israeli government allegedly continue supporting Azerbaijan.
“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,” read one text circulating on the platform.
“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 post continued.
“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.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been embroiled in a longstanding conflict regarding Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that is mostly populated by ethnic Armenians.
Several years ago, the region declared itself a breakaway republic, sparking an offensive by the Azeri army to regain control over the territory.
Azerbaijan is a close ally of Israel, and one of the largest buyers of Israeli arms and military technology.
“The vandalism of the World Jewish Center in Armenia is distressing,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said in a media statement following news of the desecration of the synagogue.
The rabbi stressed that “the Jewish community in Armenia is not a party to the conflict” regarding the disputed region.