Increased Air Freight from Israel to Azerbaijan Suggests Receipt of Israeli Weapons

Against the backdrop of Azerbaijani aggression towards Armenia, there has been a noticeable uptick in air freight from Israel to Azerbaijan, presumed to include shipments of Israeli weapons.

This specifically concerns flights operated by Azerbaijan's Silk Way West Airlines on the Tel Aviv-Baku route. Civilnet.am reports that as of September 19, Silk Way West has conducted 11 flights in this route since the beginning of the month. For comparison, the same number of flights took place on the same route in August. From January to July, there were about 7-10 flights per month. Overall, Silk Way West has conducted 81 flights from Tel Aviv to Baku this year.

The specific flights, 7L217, 7L219, and 7L5217, were reported for the Tel Aviv-Baku route as of September 19, 2022, according to the source flightradar24.com. These flights are operated using Boeing 747 cargo aircraft, which have a capacity of 128.5 tons.

Silk Way West is part of the Silk Way Group, which includes Silk Way Airlines. There is no information on the actual owners of this group, but investigations have revealed connections to the Aliyev family.

Notably, in September 2020, prior to the 44-day war, an increase in flights operated by Silk Way West from Israel and Turkey to Azerbaijan was also observed. These flights intensified during the war. Reports from Israeli journalists and American intelligence sources have confirmed the supply of weapons from Israel to Azerbaijan during the conflict. A consultant to Aliyev claimed that only fruits and vegetables were being transported by these aircraft.