Azerbaijani-Iranian tensed relations are under the world media consideration. Many analytic articles are published on this topic and some important regional issues are discussed. Another articles in published by New-York Times magazine on June 5.
“The perennially tense relationship between Azerbaijan and Iran, wary neighbors on the Caspian Sea, has deteriorated in recent weeks amid deep unease in Tehran over expanding military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel.
A vital border crossing here has been shut for days at a time, stranding long lines of trucks. Not far away, Iranian warships maneuver in the Caspian Sea. Last week, a senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was refused entry at the airport in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital. Ambassadors on each side have returned home.
And a public relations war is raging as officials trade nasty barbs online and in the news media — including an exchange in which the two predominantly Muslim countries each accused the other of being overly friendly to gay people”, the article starts.
The author of the articles goes back and seeks for the reasons which make worse relations between two states.
“In March, in perhaps the gravest sign of the strains, authorities in Azerbaijan arrested 22 people they said were part of an Iranian-backed plot to kill American and Israeli diplomats and attack other targets in Baku, though the allegations are as yet unproved.
Officially, Azerbaijan says it wants to remain neutral in the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program. But the government of President Ilham Aliyev has loudly defended its right to strengthen military ties with Israel, signaled most recently by Azerbaijan’s purchase of $1.6 billion worth of Israeli-made weapons. However, both countries have denied reports that Azerbaijan has given Israel access to its military bases to keep watch over Iran”.
Referring to the last developments in the region, the article continues: “The rising importance of Azerbaijan as a strategic ally of the West will be on full display on Wednesday, when Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton lands in Baku on a diplomatic swing through the South Caucasus. With overland supply routes closed in Pakistan, NATO is relying heavily on airfields in Azerbaijan to move supplies to and from Afghanistan.
Ties to the West, however, are only one factor in the tensions with Iran. Azerbaijan has long chafed at Iran’s support of Armenia, Azerbaijan’s western neighbor and sworn enemy, in the long-running war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh”.
According to the article the USA has not commented on the issue about the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations. “State Department officials in Washington refused to respond to questions about the friction between Azerbaijan and Iran, the United States’ relationship with Baku or the implications for American and international security. “We’re not prepared to comment,” Robert B. Hilton, a spokesman on European and Eurasian affairs, wrote in an e-mail message”.
“Leyla Yunus, the director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, an organization that monitors human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, said that political repression by the Aliyev government was benefiting Iran, and that the lack of economic opportunities, especially for young people in rural areas, could push them to embrace the religious fervor of Tehran’s theocratic authorities”, the magazine writes.
Referring to Israeli-Azerbaijani relations, the author of the article writes: “For Israel, Azerbaijan has emerged as an extraordinary ally — a friendly Muslim nation that is willing to cooperate on military and strategic issues. And Israel, more than other countries, seems to feel empathy for the tough neighborhood in which Azerbaijan finds itself, bordered by a declared enemy and two other countries it cannot fully trust.
From Azerbaijan’s view, Israel has been more understanding than European countries that have criticized Baku about rights abuses but that do not acknowledge the challenges on its borders or the difficulty in building a secular culture in a predominantly Muslim country”.
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