A Century After Baku, a Common Turkic Alphabet Edges Closer to Reality

Early in the morning on February 28, the United States and Israel launched missile strikes on Iranian territory.

The meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Baku on January 26 was formally presented as an economic engagement ahead of a bilateral business forum. Yet the political significance of the visit extends far beyond trade delegations and memoranda of understanding.

According to U.S. officials and analysts, the United States opted for restraint rather than war amid protests that swept across Iran late last year and peaked by mid-January. The Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the RAND Corporation have concluded that military action would most likely consolidate Tehran’s leadership, destabilize the region, and damage global energy markets, without delivering political change.

The Trump administration’s decision to impose a sweeping 25 percent tariff on goods from countries “doing business” with Iran has sent a fresh shock through global trade and poses a calculated but manageable challenge for Azerbaijan — a small, strategically located economy with deep regional ties and limited access to the US market.