A few days ago, the Media Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan issued a sharp and unusual warning.
“Some information resources operating in the Republic of Azerbaijan are attempting to pass themselves off as mass media outlets representing the interests of various communities in the country,” the statement said.
“The website ‘Ajmedia.news’, which presents itself as the ‘Azerbaijan Jewish Media Center’ and a news portal created by the initiative of public figures of Jewish origin, does not meet media ethics requirements in its published materials and is not included in the ‘Media Registry’ information system… A relevant decision has been made regarding that resource, and its activities have been deemed illegal due to violations of the requirements of the Law ‘On Media’,” the Agency reported.
“Elchi”, citing musavat.com, reports that the Israeli site “IsraLife” has published an article regarding this issue taking place in Azerbaijan.
The site writes that this issue goes far beyond mere violations of registration formalities. The matter lies in how its owner conducts himself. To understand why the site’s activities have caused such dissatisfaction within Azerbaijan’s Jewish communities, one must look deeper into the history of the matter.
The Ajmedia.news site was created in 2020 at the initiative of the “Azerbaijan Jewish Media Center”. This Limited Liability Company (LLC) was registered in Sumgait that same year.
The authorized capital is only 10 manats (approximately 6 US dollars). The company and the site were founded by a person named Nasimi Novruz oglu Abilov.
Little is known about his activities outside the borders of Israel. However, on Azerbaijani websites and social networks, he is presented as if he were the leader of Azerbaijani Jews. This impression is artificially created by himself: he gives interviews where he speaks about the mood of the entire Jewish people, expresses the “opinion” of the Azerbaijani Jewish community in general, etc. Together with the signature “Director of the Jewish Media Center”, this creates the impression that one of the community leaders is speaking.
The site writes that Nasimi Abilov even addressed a letter to the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, on behalf of the Jews in Azerbaijan. In the letter dated May 3, 2020, sent to the head of state’s official website, Nasimi Abilov thanked the president for the measures taken in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. And he signed it as follows:
“Founder of the Sumgait Jewish community”. However, he is not the founder.
In Azerbaijan, of course, no one is forbidden from opening new communities. There are about 40 non-Muslim associations here. And in Sumgait, a local Jewish community was once created in 2004. Initially, it was a “branch” of the Baku Ashkenazi Jewish Community, gained formal independence in 2009, and re-registered in 2024. Like “amutot” (NGOs) in Israel, several people are needed for the registration of such communities. Nasimi Abilov is just one of ten founders listed on its registration certificate. That is, at best, he is one of many co-founders. According to Yevgeni Brenneyson, head of the Sumgait Community and deputy chairman of the Baku Ashkenazi Jewish Community, in recent years Nasimi Abilov has only attended community events — but has never financed any of them and has not been the initiator of any. The funds are provided by the Baku community, personally by Brenneyson from his own funds, and by Rabbi Mendel Leyster, who founded this community more than 20 years ago.
On August 31, that same letter was removed from the head of the Republic’s website.
The site writes that this appeal by Nasimi Abilov was not harmless self-aggrandizement:
“In 2025, complaints began to reach the communities from Azerbaijani Jews. People claimed that the articles published about them on the Ajmedia site did not reflect reality. They tried to portray some Jewish figures as opponents of the government without any basis, etc. At that time, Milikh Yevdayev, head of the Baku Religious Community of Mountain Jews, Alexander Sharovski, chairman of the Baku Religious Community of European Jews, and Rabbi Zamir Isayev, head of the Baku Religious Community of Sephardic Jews, appealed to the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations. They requested that it be taken into account that this ‘media center’ has nothing to do with their communities and that the materials on the site and its social networks do not express their position.
Shortly after this, a court process began, and the domain owner was required to close the site due to violations of registration requirements. Its employees had no right to present themselves as “Azerbaijani media”. Nor as “representatives of Israeli media”: neither the Ajmedia.info site nor any of its employees are registered with the Government Press Office (GPO) of Israel. For this reason, the court issued a decision to close this resource.
Tariel Abdullayev, the owner of the AJMedia.info domain name, informed the court that he also has no connection to the resource, and the internet address is used by another person named Nasimi.
Tariel Abdullayev complied with the court’s decision and closed the site. However, later Nasimi Abilov obtained another address and continued his activities as Ajmedia.news instead of Ajmedia.info.”
The site also writes about Kazim Abbasov – “David Seliverstov”, who appeared in Azerbaijan with a Jewish identity:
“A while ago, a scandal erupted in Azerbaijan regarding the exposure of another person, a man named ‘David Seliverstov’. It turned out that his real name is completely different – Kazim Abbasov. He was a close associate of Anatoliy Rafailov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament. Exposing articles about ‘David Seliverstov’ appeared in Musavat.com and Haqqin.az publications.
According to journalists, Kazim Abbasov even tried to get a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog under a false name, but this attempt did not succeed — Israeli security stopped him. Also, Abbasov-‘Seliverstov’ claimed to be a representative of an NGO for people from the Caucasus, led by Pavel Ilizarov, who recently ran in the ‘Likud’ primaries in Israel.
This is also a photograph that Abilov once distributed on his social networks: he is depicted here together with Abbasov. The third person in the photo is Rafailov, a member of the Milli Majlis. Such ‘status’ as ‘owner of a major Jewish media outlet’, ‘community founder’, etc., allows Abilov to meet with many officials, participate in government events, and also make strange demands: for example, he demanded ‘greater transparency’ in the use of funds allocated by the state to communities.
Indeed, the authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan provide financial assistance to all three Jewish communities in the country — just as they do to Christian and other non-Muslim associations.
It is no coincidence that today many call this country an example of tolerance and good neighborliness. “We have great support from our state. Thank God, there are also private sponsors, and other Jewish organizations help a lot by supporting certain projects – but it is state support that ensures the preservation of Jewish programs. Funds are allocated from the Reserve Fund of the President of Azerbaijan,” Rabbi Zamir Isayev said in an interview. In August 2026, the leaders of Azerbaijani Jews had to react to this again. They issued a new statement thanking President Aliyev for his comprehensive support and the generally favorable conditions created for Jews and Jewish life in the country. Their statement dated August 31 is quoted by ‘Jnews.az’, a real Jewish news portal in Azerbaijan that is registered and operates in accordance with all legal requirements.
Unfortunately, belonging to the Sumgait ‘partnership’ does not allow for demanding accountability from all Azerbaijani communities. Moreover, all of them are accountable to tax and other authorities and are audited. Thus, their activities cannot be ‘non-transparent’. However, publications on this topic, which Nasimi Abilov’s site and social networks also distribute in the Azerbaijani language, can cast a shadow over Jews and encourage neighbors to view them worse. As if the ‘confession’ from Gideon Sa’ar to local Jews was not enough – by the way, during the Israeli minister’s visit to Baku, Nasimi Abilov also managed to meet with him.
In a new joint statement issued by community leaders, regret is expressed regarding “the publication of untrue information about the activities of the country’s Jewish religious communities on the ‘AJMedia’ news portal, which belongs to a structure that has been presenting itself as the ‘Azerbaijan Jewish Media Center’ in recent days”. The statement emphasizes that it is unacceptable for any media structure to speak on behalf of Jewish religious communities, to present their position without referring to the official position of the communities, or to attempt to form public opinion on their behalf. “Azerbaijan’s Jewish religious communities do not recognize ‘AJMedia’ as their information resource, do not support it in any form, and declare that the opinions published on this resource do not reflect the position of the communities,” the document quotes.
Jewish associations in Azerbaijan believe that this is about attempts to use the strategic rapprochement between Azerbaijan and Israel in recent years, as well as traditional Azerbaijani tolerance, for their own interests — in ways that could harm the good neighborly relations between the two peoples and countries. But now the Media Development Agency has reminded that the activities of this site have been deemed illegal. Thus, it seems that this story will soon come to an end.”