“It is in Iran’s interests not to have that corridor,” Acting Chair of the Iran Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences, Leading Researcher Gohar Iskandaryan upon Aravot’s observation about how it is not in Iran’s interests for the so-called Zangezur Corridor to be given to Azerbaijan and upon the question about why Iran is passive in this issue.
During the seminar on “Coverage of Armenia’s internal and external issues in the post-war period” with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Development of the United Kingdom by the Yerevan Press Club, the Iranian expert explained in detail, “Iran looks at these issues from a real political point of view, what is its interest and what will it do? If Azerbaijan wants to communicate with Nakhichevan, it does so through Iran. In other words, if a corridor is created, Iran will lose it. In addition, Iran understands very well that if the corridor is provided, Iran’s role will be secondary, it will be isolated, and the next step will be against Iran. They are simply postponing the actions against them.”
Acting Chair of the Iran Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences, Leading Researcher Gohar Iskandaryan
Speaking about the “map of the Turkish world”, which a representative of the Gray Wolves presented to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Gohar Iskandaryan noted that the part of Iran was also there and commented, “Iran understands very well that sooner or later it will address this issue. Let’s not forget that in Baku, Erdogan spoke about the unification of the Turkish peoples on the two banks of the Araz. This became a very serious problem in Iran. Of course, Turkey immediately said that it was just a poem, but we said that it is Eastern diplomacy. If you can’t cut your hand, you have to kiss it until you cut your hand.” Referring to Iran’s passivity and indecisiveness, which many experts mention, Gohar Iskandaryan said, “The main issue of Iran’s policy is to stay in the game. If it can stop the corridor program, it will do everything to stop it, and if it sees that it will not be able to abort it, it will be out of the game. Iran will participate in the game and say, let’s give the corridor, then we will seen. In other words, Iran is playing realpolitik.” According to the Iranian expert, the Russian factor also plays a role in Iran’s restraint.
She explained, “Their toolkit in Syria is combined with Russia. In other words, they are cooperating with Russia, and for that they are quite actively used against Turkey. Iran is quite active in Iraq and has the support of Russia as it is against the United States. And in the so-called corridor issue, Iran has to face Russia’s plans, so Iran does not want to increase its problems and tries to resolve the issue through balance. It is important for Iran to get Russia’s consent in the Caucasus, because they are the dictators here at the moment.”
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Acknowledging that Iran probably does not have a strategic determination, Gohar Iskandaryan also mentioned, “In connection with Artsakh, Iran is determined to defend the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Iran’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has not changed since the first day of the Artsakh war. Iran was in favor of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. But it is one thing to formally be in favor, it is another thing to say what they say. When we look at their interests, we see that it is in their interests for those territories to remain in the hands of Armenia. But officially Iran is a Shiite and can not avoid protecting the Shiites and protect the Christians, in their words, the Infidels. Although Iran does not consider Armenians to be infidels because it says that the peoples of the Bible have the right to live equally with us.” According to the Iranian expert, the other problem is that Iran has similar problems inside itself, and if Iran defends the right of Armenians to self-determination in Artsakh, it will have serious problems inside its own country.
Gohar Iskandaryan also mentioned that Iran has always told Armenia without making a fuss that we can secretly help, but do not give up even a millimeter. She noted that during the first Artsakh war, Iran provided a large amount of oil to Armenia, with which our military equipment moved. During the 44-day war, information was provided on where the Azerbaijani troops were coming from. And when Georgia closed the border with Armenia, for some time the land border of Iran was open, and that’s how Russian weapons came to Armenia.
However, this angered the people of Iranian Azerbaijan. At the instigation of Azerbaijan and Turkey, they stood up, started demonstrations, and even set fire to one of the vehicles carrying weapons. After that, Iran realized that it was impossible. The movement of Russian weapons must be stopped. Then some planes entered Armenia by air, through the Caspian Sea, through Iran. The Iranian expert also stated that Iran could have besieged Armenia during the first Artsakh war, about which Azerbaijan has repeatedly asked it for assistance as an Islamic country, but Iran has not done so.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
