These days, the Azerbaijani campaign machine is also working in the direction of delving a wedge between Armenia-Iran relations. The press in this country regularly reports about “warm” and “friendly” relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, even saying in the name of Iran that the latter has provided logistical support to Azerbaijan during the hostilities carried out by this country against the NKR.
Analogous statement was recently made by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, retired General Yaşar Aydəmirov. “The military-technical cooperation with a number of countries, including with Iran, is irreplaceable for us. Today, as well as during the Karabakh war, Iran supports us not only politically but also militarily,” – says the General, announcing that currently Iran and Azerbaijan are closely cooperating in military-technical sector, “It is no secret that the 122-millimeter howitzer D -30 rockets, 107 mm reactive volley (YARS) missiles, fire engines 60 mm mortars acquired from Iran were successfully used in early April.”
Expert in Iranian studies, Vardan Voskanyan, in an interview with Aravot.am, referring to these statements said that such statements have no connection with reality, “Iran is not manufacturing a part of the mentioned weapons, and particularly the mortars, according to military experts, can be purchased in any country that has more or less success in the military industry.” Vardan Voskanyan stated that especially lately, the Baku dictator’s campaign machine is trying to use the information framework aiming to frustrate obviously warm relations between Armenia and Iran, “What the General presented is a campaign balloon which is aimed at delving a wedge in Armenia-Iran relations and causing some obstacles in these relations.
In particular, such an attempt is made to influence the Armenian audience, in other words, to create among our social circles a certain atmosphere of mistrust towards Iran, which naturally is beneficial to Baku dictator. I think that in this context, in the case of such publications and materials, we must be certain in the compliance with the reality. We should state one important factor for us: it is obvious that the current “status quo” is beneficial for the Islamic Republic of Iran as currently the Azerbaijani-Iranian common border has been possibly cut down, and along this border, the Republic of Azerbaijan, directly or serving the interests of the third countries, has carried out a clear policy of anti-Iranian operations for many years. It is natural that the Iranians would not want this border to be changed in favor of Azerbaijan.”
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Expert in Iranian studies specified another important fact that Iran’s balanced policy on the Karabakh issue deserves the criticism of the Azerbaijani society, “Particularly, there are obviously anti-Iranian sentiments in the social networks. It refers also to the period of the four-day war when some Azerbaijani users were arguing that the Iranian side has even supported the Armenian forces, especially when it comes to accusations of allegedly lighting up the positions of Azerbaijan from Iran and the thus making them visible for the Armenian side. In this sense, let us clearly state that there is no positive attitude toward Iran in wide circles of the Azerbaijani society and the state level. Essentially, the interests of Iran and Azerbaijan contradict each other in many points.”
As estimated by Vardan Voskanyan, the attempts of the Azerbaijani campaign machine to delve a wedge in the Armenian-Iranian relations are a failure, but the society must maintain the rules of “informational hygiene” and succumb to news sources disseminating false materials and implementing overt campaigning. Addressing one more contradiction available in the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan, our interlocutor said, “The matter is about the drones that were used against us during the four-day war. Prior to it and after it, this factor is also used against Iran in planning certain anti-Iranian actions. In other words, with the use of these mechanisms, especially in the northern regions of Iran, an information is gathered that is not only used inside Azerbaijan to undermine the positions of Iran but also rendered to Israel which is an obvious opponent of Iran in the Middle East.”
Luiza SUKIASYAN
