Israeli President Isaac Herzog flew through Turkish airspace to Azerbaijan on a passenger jet on Wednesday, circumventing restrictions on Israeli government aircraft as a dispute over school headscarf restrictions strained relations between Ankara and Baku, according to a Middle East Eye report.
Herzog traveled from Tel Aviv to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku aboard Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) flight J222, which was operating a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner named “Shusha,” with flight tracking records and footage of his arrival indicating that he took the scheduled service.
The aircraft’s name echoes the 2021 Shusha Declaration, which established an alliance between Turkey and Azerbaijan and takes its name from a city Azerbaijani forces recaptured from Armenian control in 2020.
Turkey bars Israeli government aircraft from its airspace while allowing commercial passenger flights operated by Israeli and foreign airlines to cross its territory on routes to and from Israel.
Azerbaijan had not informed Ankara that Herzog was aboard the flight, a Turkish official familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye.
Herzog’s office declined to comment on the flight arrangements.
The journey contrasts with Herzog’s canceled visit to the United Nations climate conference in Baku in November 2024, when Turkey refused permission for his Israeli aircraft to cross its territory.
Herzog visited Azerbaijan for Thursday’s seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), a forum for cooperation on security among Asian countries.
He met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Wednesday to discuss relations between their countries along with regional and international issues, Azerbaijan’s presidency announced.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attended the summit on behalf of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and walked out with his delegation as Herzog began speaking Thursday, along with representatives of more than 10 countries, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Fidan also met with Aliyev Thursday to discuss recent developments in relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, according to the Azerbaijani presidency.
The summit came two days after Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) accused Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of using Azerbaijan’s school headscarf restrictions to exert political pressure on Baku.
The party’s statement targeted Oktay Saral, a chief adviser to Erdoğan, along with AKP lawmakers who had criticized schools for turning away girls wearing Islamic headscarves.
“We call on the AKP government to refrain from this harmful policy,” the party said, accusing Turkish politicians of interfering in Azerbaijan’s affairs and using religion to fuel division.
The dispute concerns school dress rules amended on September 21 that prohibit clothing deemed inconsistent with secular education, wording some schools have enforced as a headscarf ban despite the absence of an explicit reference to headscarves.
Restrictions affecting students and teachers have prompted protests in Azerbaijan along with criticism in Turkey.
Headscarf restrictions carry political significance for Erdoğan, whose governments dismantled bans that had excluded women wearing headscarves from universities and public employment in Turkey.
Key Erdoğan ally Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), intervened Wednesday with a call for respect for the sovereignty, independence and domestic laws of Turkic states.
Bahçeli urged cooperation based on equality and mutual respect and warned against attempts to damage relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The disagreement has also exposed differences over Israel, with YAP defending Azerbaijan’s relations with the country and rejecting accusations that those ties contradict its support for Palestinian rights.
The party also challenged the use of the allies’ “one nation, two states” slogan to justify interference, insisting that their ties do not give either country the right to impose its political preferences on the other.
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