Tension remains high between Ankara and Tehran over Nagorno Karabakh and the Azerbaijani provinces in Iran

15 December 20203 years ago babelfish

We had written it here in Atlantico Quotidiano a few weeks ago: although the conflict had stopped, the Nagorno Karabakh question would have continued to divide the contenders. Not only to divide the two sides in the conflict, Azerbaijan and Armenia, but also the middle powers involved, especially Turkey, Russia and Iran.

Tehran is in fact siding with Armenia, which had also tried to supply armaments, provoking the anger of the Iranian Azeris, who have always been very sensitive to the issue of the great Azerbaijan. The protest of the Iranian Azeris forced the Shiite clerical regime to block the transfer of arms and officially take a neutral position in the conflict. Indeed, once the fate of the conflict was clear, the Iranians had even taken positions closer to Azerbaijani than to Armenians. Despite the words, the tension between Ankara and Tehran remains very high, especially after the Azeris have recaptured the ancient Khudaferin bridge, which now allows the Azeris – or the Turks – to be practically on the border with Iran.

A new piece of this crisis between Turkey and Iran was added last week. Visiting Baku in honor of the victory parade, Erdogan had read a poem in which he invoked the union of the two banks divided by the Aras river, or the river that flows along the border between Iran and Azerbaijan, dividing the Iranian provinces with Azerbaijani majority ( Western and Eastern Azerbaijan, Adrabil and Zanjan), from Azerbaijan. A division that has never really been accepted by many Iranian Azeris, who have often invoked union with Baku (it is no coincidence that those areas were de facto independent for years, when they were first occupied by the Russians in the early 1900s and then by the Soviets between 1945 and 1946). In spite of the fact that today Iran's most important leader, Ali Khamenei, comes from Mashhad and is Azerbaijani, many Iranian Azeris still don't really feel part of the Islamic Republic. This triggers a constant fear of separatist riots in the central Iranian government, which periodically explode together with social anger, provoking the repressive reaction of the regime.

Erdogan's words, as expected, sparked Tehran's anger. Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif posted two protest tweets, one in English and one in Farsi. Very significantly, in the English one, Erdogan was asked not to question the sovereignty of Azerbaijan, while in the one in Farsi – much more honest – the Turkish president was warned against questioning the union of the northern areas. of the Aras river with the “Iranian motherland”.

The Turks, as expected, took a partial backtrack and in a telephone conversation with Zarif, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said that Ankara did not intend to question the territorial unity of Iran. In spite of the rapprochements, the mistrust between Ankara and Tehran remains evident. Perhaps the rapprochement between Turkey and Saudi Arabia and between Turkey and Israel can also be attributed to the management of the Nagorno Karabakh front. Winning a conflict is not easy, but it is often easier than post-war management.

With the country reduced to a ruin, Erdogan seriously needs the economic support of the Saudis, to be able to restart exports and continue to support regional allies, Baku in the first place (also because the Azerbaijani corridor ensures the passage of fundamental energy resources for the Turkish export to Europe). The rapprochement with Israel, therefore, would not only serve to find a solution to the energy game in the Mediterranean – where Ankara practically plays alone, or almost alone (assuming that Tripolitania can be called a controllable territory) – but also to secure the precious American support ( Nato), in a game that is still open, that of Nagorno Karabakh, where having NATO coverage would do much to manage the bulky Russian presence and the dangerous Iranian interference …

The post Tension remains high between Ankara and Tehran for Nagorno Karabakh and the Azerbaijani provinces in Iran appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/resta-alta-la-tensione-tra-ankara-e-teheran-per-il-nagorno-karabakh-e-le-province-azere-in-iran/ on Tue, 15 Dec 2020 04:48:00 +0000.