REAL CONFLICT ABOUT NOTHING
By Orkhan Sattarov
Vestnik Kavkaza
May 23 2012
Russia
The relationship between Azerbaijan and Iran has always been a
complicated one, but it is the first time such a prolonged crisis has
happened in its history. And it is certainly the first time in the
history of world diplomacy that such a minor incident has triggered
such a major crisis. The pretext is virtually non-existent: Tehran
recalled its ambassador to Baku for ‘consultations’ because of a
gay-parade Azerbaijan was allegedly going to sanction. However,
Baku never planned such an event.
The head of the social and political department of the Azerbaijani
Presidential Administration, Ali Hassanov, commented on the Iranian
allegations and said that Iran is one of the parties waging an
information war against Azerbaijan on the eve of the ‘Eurovision-2012
contest’. “We have warned Iran against such misinformation many times.
I’ve personally visited the country to state our position: we don’t
interfere in their internal affairs and don’t want them interfering in
ours. I really don’t know where they got that idea about a gay-parade.”
Hassanov also mentioned that Iran thinks that Azerbaijan is a
Shiah state, while in fact Azerbaijan never discriminates for any
confession. “Iran wants us to be its friend and the enemy of its
enemies, but we have our own independent policy. It is not necessary
for us to be the friends of Iran’s friends and enemies of Iran’s
enemies, but we never took part in the western anti-Iranian campaign.
Iran is a fellow-Muslim state, some 30 million of our
fellow-Azerbaijanis live there,” Hassanov is cited as saying by the
APA agency.
The absurdity of the allegations that gave rise to the new stage of
the Iranian-Azerbaijani faceoff clearly demonstrates that Iran is
happy to use any pretext to criticize Azerbaijan. The ‘gay-parade’
card played by the Iranian spiritual leaders was supposed to make the
Azeri government “return to Islamic values’ and actually turned their
flag upside-down, putting the green stripe, signifying Islam, on top.
In order to better understand the most recent Iranian-Azerbaijani
developments, we should show the events in their chronological order.
During the unceasing protest rallies in front of the Azeri consulate
in Tabriz, the representatives of the pro-governmental ‘Bassidzh’
organization demand the cancellation of the Eurovision contest and
the mythical gay-parade in Azerbaijan, as well as insulting top Azeri
officials. Azeri civil society responded with protest actions in front
of the Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan. The Azeri diaspora in the USA,
Sweden, Germany, GB and Denmark supported the protest. Some of the
slogans that sounded during these rallies, like “Azerbaijan will be
united and Tabriz will be its capital” or “No to mullahs-homosexuals”
had the effect of a ‘red rag’ on Tehran. During one of the actions the
protestors laid a black wreath near the Iranian Embassy, which should
symbolize the upcoming fall of the Tehran regime. And of course the
photo of Ahmadinejad and Armenian President Serge Sarksyan became the
‘hit’ of the protest posters. However, Iran decided to react to these
street rallies on the official level and called on the Baku authorities
to respond, thus attributing a whole new level to the conflict.
The Iranian Embassy’s official statement reads that ‘the insults
against the Shiah leader hurt the feelings of each and every free
Muslim’ and that they hope that the Islamic community of Azerbaijan
would react accordingly. Then the Embassy demanded that the Azeri
government finds and punishes the culprits immediately. Iran was
also outraged by the lack of reaction from the Caucasian Muslim
Administration to the incident.
The claim about the ‘Islamic community of Azerbaijan’ is particularly
interesting: it is no secret that Iran supports radical Muslim
movements in Azerbaijan, trying to use them to promote its own
influence in the country. Constant heated discussions on religious
topics in Azerbaijan play into the hands of Iran and its creation –
the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan.
In this context it is interesting to note the incident that took
place in Sumgait on May 22: the police confiscated a number of CDs
containing speeches against the Eurovision contest and radical Islamic
propaganda from the ‘Islam’ shop. 10 people were also arrested.
According to APA, Iran might be behind the CD circulating in Baku
and Sumgait.
However, just as Tehran uses the radicals in Azerbaijan, Baku also
has certain leverage in its relationship with Tehran. The Iranian
authorities can’t ignore the tens of millions of ethnic Azerbaijanis
living in their country. This month the First Forums of South
Azerbaijani Turks took place in Ankara, despite all the obstacles
created by Iran. 237 delegates took part in it, including Azerbaijani
MPs. On May 22 mass eco-protest rallies took place in the towns of
Tabriz and Urmia: the activists demanded that the authorities pay
more attention to the problem of Lake Urmia drying up. However, the
protestors also demanded civic rights for the Azeri population of Iran,
such as education in their native language. According to the media,
more than 100 protestors were arrested and there were injuries.
On May 22 Iran recalled its ambassador from Baku, and right after
that the Iranian border became closed to cargo transport travelling
from Azerbaijan. According to the Azerbaijani foreign ministry’s
official representative, Iran hasn’t yet clarified its position about
the recall of its ambassador. According to the Iranian Embassy,
the ambassador was recalled because of sacrilege that happened in
Azerbaijan. Commenting on this statement, the Azeri FM representative
said that in this case Iran should recall its ambassador from Armenia
as well, as there was a lot of sacrilege committed by the Armenians
during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Baku often reproaches Iran for
its friendship with Yerevan, even though Tehran itself always demands
‘Islamic solidarity’ from Baku.
Armenia’s cooperation with Iran gives it the opportunity to keep the
Azerbaijani territories under occupation, as the economic benefits from
this cooperation cover the damage caused by the closed border with
Turkey. It is obvious that Iran doesn’t want a strong Turkic state
near its border – and that’s exactly what it will get if Azerbaijan
regains control over the occupied territories.
On the other hand, due to its position in the Azeri-Armenian conflict,
Iran has lost almost all its influence over Azerbaijan, giving way to
Turkey, which led to the consolidation of forces promoting Pan-Turkic
ideology within Azerbaijan. The point of no return was reached in
May 1992 when, after the ‘mediatory efforts’ of Iran, Armenian troops
took the Karabakh capital, the city of Shusha. Therefore, Iran failed
to deliver its guarantees of banning all military actions during the
negotiations. Such ‘diplomatic surprises’ can’t be forgotten.
Today’s round of the Azeri-Iranian conflict coincided with the US
Congress adopting a new package of anti-Iranian sanctions. According
to Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, Russia is
very concerned about the fact that many countries now agree to the
possibility of a military solution to the ‘Iranian problem’. According
to the US ambassador to Israel, Washington has a complete plan of
a military incursion into Iran, so the general picture looks rather
grim for Tehran.
It is possible that this is the reason for the excessive irritability
of Tehran towards Azerbaijan, which has friendly relations with
both the US and Israel. It is also possible that the row about the
non-existent gay-parade was created to divert the Iranian public’s
attention from the economic difficulties and the impending war.
However, Azerbaijan is unlikely to bear such treatment lightly,
and Tehran seems to have no ‘plan B’.