SPY SCANDAL BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND IRAN TURNS EPIC
Pravda
March 21 2012
Russia
The spy scandal between Azerbaijan and Irann has been reactivated. It
began in February, when the Islamic Republic accused Azerbaijan in
support of the persons involved in the attacks on Iranian nuclear
physicists.
Now, the Azeri side accuses Iran of preparing a series of attacks
against the embassies and other U.S. and Israeli organizations. On
March 14, the Ministry of National Security reportedly neutralized
the entire espionage and sabotage network working for the Iranian
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic immediately
issued a rebuttal, and protested the actions of the Azerbaijani
authorities. The Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Islamic Republic
Javanshir Akhundov was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry and
was told about Israeli machinations “to discredit Iran,” resulting
in “brotherly and friendly government of the Republic of Azerbaijan
taking part in this game.” Tehran has stressed that the incident
virtually cancels the agreement signed at the trilateral meeting of
foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey on March 7, as well
as the arrangements entered into by the defense ministers of the two
countries a week earlier.
In addition, according to the Azerbaijani secret police, Revolutionary
Guards recruited one of the detainees, Niyazi Kerimov, back in 1999.
He, allegedly for a large sum of money, has attracted dozens of
other citizens of Azerbaijan into the criminal organization, whose
purpose was to conduct sabotage and terrorist acts against American
and Israeli targets in the territory of Azerbaijan.
On the background of the spy scandal and sharp exchange of diplomatic
notes, there is an aggravation in another area. Tehran was outraged
by the recent statements from Baku about renaming Azerbaijan into the
“North Azerbaijan”.
The Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia Heydar Jemal spoke
about the reasons for another escalation between the two countries
in an interview with “Pravda.Ru”:
“More recently, The Defense Minister of Azerbaijan said that his
country will never become a source of aggression against Iran. The
events that followed once again prove that one can make any claims
they want. Of course, Azerbaijan is unlikely to become a direct arena
of possible strikes on Iran.
Indeed, the latter can deal with it very quickly, because Baku is
very vulnerable. In part because, in case of a serious aggravation
with Iran, Armenia that has allied relations with it may join in,
and then the Azerbaijanis will have to forget about their dream to
return the land seized by the Armenians.
Nevertheless, all these spy games with the renaming to “North
Azerbaijan” suggest that the Azerbaijani political leadership is
conducting an anti-Iranian affair. Of course, Baku is making it clear
that there is “Southern Azerbaijan” and that it is ready to challenge
Tehran’s control over it.
Someone counts on using the Iranian Azerbaijanis against the Islamic
republic. However, these attempts have had and will have little
success. The Azeri factor in Iran became a state issue. The Iranian
Azeris simply have no reasons for any serious discontent. The spiritual
leader of the Islamic Republic is their representative.
Moreover, half of the Iran’s elite is Azerbaijanis who strongly
support the leadership of their country.
Baku is playing a dangerous game. In total, it controls up to nine
million Azerbaijanis, while in Iran they account for 25 million. That
is, there are three southern, Tabriz Azerbaijani for one northern, Baku
Azerbaijani. The former are much more well-organized, well-educated
and tough. They also have thirty years of experience in management.
If someone harbors ideas about the “unification of Azerbaijan,” they
must be aware that this can happen only according to “the southern
scenario”. The South Azerbaijan in this case will crush the North
Azerbaijan like a fly. To argue otherwise would be equivalent to
arguing that FRG did not absorb the GDR but vice versa.
It is surprising that Baku does not understand that Tabriz will
absorb the northern degenerative growth. Of course, all sorts of
anti-Iranian actions of the political elite in Azerbaijan are due
to the fact that it has a number of idiots in it. On the one hand,
we must not forget that in many respects such things are intended
for domestic consumption.
In addition, the Azeri leaders got involved in the games with Iran not
by accident. Their purpose was merely to nourish information tensions,
pushing oil prices up in the interests of all oil producers.
However, do not forget the fact that the Azerbaijani leadership is
not alone in the full sense of the word, and that they agree their
actions with Washington, trying to shake the situation in Iran,
including in terms of the Azerbaijan issue.”
Sergei Balmasov Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/21-03-2012/120843-spy_scandal_azerbaijan_iran-0/