Azerbaijan, the ostensibly pro-Western and secular dictatorship in the Caucasus, likes to depict itself as a bastion of religious tolerance, a bulwark against Islamist terrorism, and an ally in the West’s efforts to free itself from energy dependence on hostile powers.

Baku’s cynicism toward its Jewish and Christian populations is well-established. It subsidizes, if not pays for, luxurious junkets, many of which visit the same Jewish villages or Christian leaders, all of whom attest to the regime’s munificence. The Jewish villages are largely museums, and the minority interlocutors are well-practiced tour guides for the naive or corrupt.