The spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the meetings held in Tehran with the presidents of Russia and Turkey, mentioned that Iran will not tolerate the closing of the Iran-Armenia border and that the Iran-Armenia border is a thousand-year-old communication route. Aravot.am asked Iranologist Nver Davtyan about how this statement stands out among the official statements of Tehran after the 2020 war. Is it news or just another record of what happened?
“Even in the last period of the war, when a dangerous situation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani military-political relations was seen, which could undermine the Armenian-Iranian relations and endanger the existence of the Armenian-Iranian border, Iran made statements at different levels: the president, the spiritual leader, the foreign minister.
Military exercises took place, fixing the red lines for Iran. Azerbaijan and Turkey are interested in aligning their military and political goals with the countries in the region and outside the region with which they have economic interests, and in the name of peace they are trying to endanger and threaten the Armenian-Iranian border, that is, to achieve their desired dream at the expense of the Armenian-Iranian border,” Nver Davtyan noted.
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He emphasized that Iran, however, asserted its position both then and now, and the statements of the spiritual leader of Iran in the current situation are once again the expression of that important position. “In the general statement of the presidents, there was a small wording about the Caucasus region, regarding the inseparability of the borders of the countries, ensuring security, but the Syrian problem was the subject of more attention, with the territorial integrity of Syria, humanitarian, military-political issues. As for the statement of the spiritual leader of Iran, the only thing that was interesting was the fact that he clearly expressed Iran’s position to the presidents of the two major players, Russia and Turkey, that this is unacceptable for them, no matter how much they respect the so-called territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. In other words, Iran will not allow the land border that secures Armenian-Iranian relations to be disrupted, because it is not only the border with Armenia, but also the border with Iran. In this there is also a mention of an important historical fact that the Armenian-Iranian land border has existed for thousands of years.
This means that with this statement, Syunik is perceived as an inseparable part of Armenia. This is when Aliyev euphorically declares that “it is Western Zangezur”… The statement of the spiritual leader of Iran was aimed at this as an answer that this border has been the Armenian-Iranian land connection for thousands of years, which is an inseparable red line. This was a historical and military-political warning to Azerbaijan, that there is no need to have big ambitions from that point of view.” As for the fact why the spiritual leader of Iran emphasized the above in the presence of the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Nver Davtyan expressed the opinion that there are some compromise discussions and proposals by Turkey regarding Syria or by Russia regarding Syria with Iran.”It is possible that they were at the expense of the Caucasus. But Iran established a political will that both Syria and its border with Armenia are important for it.”
To the question: how and to what extent is the clear fixing of the mentioned position by Iran practically viable for RA, what are we doing to get the vital for us from this coincidence of Armenian-Iranian interests, Nver Davtyan answered: “What we have missed in the last thirty years in the direction of deepening and development of relations with Iran, we must try to complete and implement as quickly as possible: communications and development of economic-political, military-political relations.
There are various problems here. Today there are terrorist groups in the territories occupied by Azerbaijan. In the statement of the presidents, it is indirectly mentioned that the actions of the three countries should be coordinated in the direction of stopping and withdrawing the activities of the terrorist structures that are still in the region. Here there is work to be done between Armenia and Iran.
In addition, there is also potential in the military-economic, military-political sphere, and we also have a need. We have a problem: the will of the Armenian authorities to bring together the important goals and the efforts aimed at them in matters of primary importance, related to the security of Armenia and Artsakh, to be free from external interfering interventions and pressures, so that Armenian-Iranian relations can develop in a unique way. I am referring to the American influence. We cannot exclude certain Russian influence either, it hinders the development of some directions of Armenian-Iranian relations. All this should be combined in such a way that it is perceived as a common interest.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
