Israel's weapons on Tehran's borders What is behind the tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran?

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with an Israeli Harop UAV

How did the crisis between Iran and Azerbaijan begin? Why did it escalate so quickly? And what does the Israeli weapon do on the borders of Iran? Has Azerbaijan really become a stronghold of Israeli influence? In their article published on the "Eurasia Net" website, the writers "Joshua Kuchera" and "Haydar Isayev" shed light on the details of the escalating crisis between Tehran and Baku, and the role that Israel plays in that crisis.

While military exercises continue on both sides of the border between Iran and Azerbaijan, the verbal battles between the two countries are intensifying against the backdrop of the burning crisis. necessary against Iran's threats.

On October 5, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev responded explicitly for the first time to Iran's main claim to Baku, that Azerbaijan hosts somehow an Israeli presence on its territory. “They talk as if Azerbaijan brought Israel to this region, so let them open their eyes and see. Where do they see Israel here? Not a single (Israeli) person lives here, there is not a single (their) building here. Is there evidence? No,” said Aliyev. During his visit to the city of "Gabriel" in southern Azerbaijan, located a few miles from the Iranian border. Then Aliyev addressed his own threat to the Iranians: “I say these words here in Gabriel, along the Aras River (which marks the boundary between Azerbaijan and Iran), that any unsubstantiated accusations entrusted to the Azerbaijani people will not go unanswered from us.”

Burning borders

Tensions between the two sides sparked a round of escalation last September, when Azerbaijani police arrested a number of Iranian truck drivers who were transporting goods to Nagorno-Karabakh. Since then, tensions have increased, as Iran began conducting unprecedented military exercises on its border with Azerbaijan on the first of October, in parallel with Iranian officials launching a severe campaign against Azerbaijan. The Iranian accusations focused on Azerbaijan's close relations with Israel, but also highlighted several other issues, including Baku's use of Syrian mercenaries during its recent war with Armenia (an accusation Baku insists on denying), and the possibility of "border changes" in the Caucasus whose nature has not been known. distance.

On October 5, the Azerbaijani media reported that Iran had closed its airspace to Azerbaijani military flights to the "Nakhchivan" region, a region belonging to Azerbaijan but completely separate from it, surrounded by Iran from the south and west, and Armenia from the north and east . Iran made its decision during joint military exercises between Azerbaijan and Turkey in Nakhchivan. The growing Turkish influence in Azerbaijan, given that Turkey is a regional rival to Iran in the Caucasus, has become a matter of concern for Tehran.

On the same day, the Azerbaijani authorities closed a prayer hall belonging to the office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, and justified its decision with a sharp rise in infections with the “Covid-19” virus, although the Azerbaijani decision came only two days after Khamenei’s statements In statements by Khamenei in front of a new batch of graduates of the Military College in Iran, an abbreviation of it was published in the Azeri language in a tweet via his Twitter account , Khamenei made an implicit threat to Azerbaijan, saying: “Those who dig holes for their brothers will fall.” In which".

Amid the tension, many Azerbaijanis rushed to attack Iran and defend their country's relationship with Israel, including opponents of the Aliyev regime at home. Has written an activist of Azerbaijan known as "Bakhtiar Hajiyev" on his site social networking "Facebook" , saying: "Khamenei threatens Azerbaijan openly through Twitter , " he wrote historian and thinker of Azerbaijan known as the "Altai Goyohov" The good relations with Israel is "one of the few good things that took place in Azerbaijan.

In another scene, four of the "National Youth Organization" in Azerbaijan brought three traditional jugs of water, known as "Aftaba", which are traditionally used for washing after urinate, and they colored them in the three colors of the Iranian flag, and then placed them on the threshold of the Iranian embassy in Baku. The photo spread widely on social media, but the four activists were arrested and fined the equivalent of sixty dollars in local currency. The stated "Abject and Aliyev", one of the four activists, the local news site "Anews.az" that his group moved out of response to "insulting Iran of Azerbaijanis."

It should be noted that a quarter of Iran's population is also Azerbaijanis, and they are concentrated in the northwest of the country on the border with Azerbaijan, and that the two countries in general are Shiites. (Although the affiliation with Iran is more likely in Iranian Azerbaijan, which did not go through with the Republic of Azerbaijan its long journey under the banner of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and despite that, there are some demands for autonomy that have always appeared throughout the history of Iranian Azerbaijan, especially since it occupies a central place in the history of Iran With its capital, Tabriz, from which the Safavids came out to rule Iran and convert it to the Shiite sect 500 years ago, and from which prominent Shiite clerics also emerged.Despite the entrenchment of Azerbaijani nationalism in the Republic of Azerbaijan as an identity separate from Iranian Azerbaijan, some religious sectors in Azerbaijan sympathize with Iran due to its tendencies Islamic-Shiiteism and its influence on Iranian propaganda since the 1979 Islamic Revolution).*

On the other hand, the number of Azerbaijani women by religious sharp criticism of Israel and the Jews near a military cemetery in Azerbaijan, and police then detained by state, has been criticized by the press of Azerbaijan known "Khadija Ismail , " the police to violate their right to expression, but added that " the families of martyrs should not be To make the graves of its children an open arena for Iranian intelligence activity.”

Diplomatic activity

In the same vein, diplomatic activity has escalated. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian hosted his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Tehran on October 4, and then traveled to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov two days later. . For its part, Azerbaijan adhered to the position of self-defense, and refuted the Iranian complaints against it, as the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a lengthy statement responding to Amir Abdollahian's allegations, insisting that "the relations between our two peoples are at the highest levels, and that relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are based on links and cooperation." A solid historical friendship.

However , the Azerbaijani threats of counter - emerged to the surface at the same time, it has stated that "Asmera Jlova", an analyst policy center analysis of the International of the relations of the Azerbaijani government, in an interview with the Turkish television network "Anews" that "Azerbaijan an independent state, and that if you showed any country Attempting to interfere in our affairs or use force with us, of course Azerbaijan reserves the right to respond appropriately, but I believe that pragmatism and logic will prevail sooner rather than later, and that all of this will be resolved.”

After denying the presence of Israelis in Azerbaijan, Aliyev drew attention to the only unambiguous source of Israeli influence on Azerbaijani soil: the huge stockpile of advanced weapons that Baku had purchased from Israel over the past years. When Aliyev visited Gabriel (the newly liberated from the Armenian occupation) he opened new border point , stop taking photos , smiling with the march of an Israeli model "Harrop."

This article is translated from Eurasianet and does not necessarily represent the Medan website.