Azerbaijanis are planning a provocation in front of the Armenian Church in Tel Aviv on August 9, blogger Alexander Lapshin alarms.
The blogger has shared the photo of an invitation for a rally being distributed among the Azerbaijani community in Israel.
“Apparently, there has been an order from Baku to try to spread riots and attacks on Armenian churches, shops and simply ethnic Armenians like it happened in Moscow,” Lapshin writes in a Facebook post titled “Aliev, hands off from church.”
“I believe that in a democratic country any community has the right to its opinion, to a peaceful demonstration, to declaring its demands. But the fact that the Armenian church, not the city center or some square, has been chosen as a venue for the demonstration is a direct path to provocation,” he says.
Lapshin stresses that “you cannot touch religion, you cannot make churches, mosques or synagogues a place for sorting things out and provocations.”
“In the place of the Armenian community in Israel, I would appeal to the Israeli police with a request to ban the rally in front of the Armenian church in order to avoid an outbreak of violence motivated by religious intolerance. Christians and Muslims should not come face to face to sort things out, this is no longer democracy, but a direct path to chaos,” he adds.
The blogger believes religious leaders in Israel should denounce the choice of the place for the rally, especially considering that Tel Aviv has always been a symbol of peaceful co-existence of Jews, Muslims and Christians. “Baku activists must not be allowed to upset the balance and bring religious hatred to the city.”
He warns Israeli Armenians to be mentally prepared for acts of vandalism, attempts to paint the church with swastikas or with calls for jihad, all sorts of inscriptions on the theme of Khojalu and Karabakh, as well as attacks on community activists.
Lapshin also advises to install cameras in all Armenian objects in Israel, where acts of vandalism can occur: churches, community centers, monuments, cemeteries.
