PRESIDENT OF IRAN BREAKS OFF HIS VISIT TO ARMENIA NOT TO COMPLICATE IRANIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS: IRANIAN POLITICIAN
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 23 2007
Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend D.Khatinoglu / The President of Iran
broke off his visit to Armenia and returned to Tehran in order not to
complicate the Iranian-Turkish relations, said the Iranian politician,
Alireza Nourizadeh.
The State Head of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arrived in Armenia on
22 October. However, Ahmadinejad broke off his visit and returned to
Iran, not laying a wreath before the monument of so-called ‘Armenian
genocide’.
The visit of the Iranian President to Yerevan at the time of
discussions in the US Congress over the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’
may damage the Iranian-Turkish and Iranian-Azerbaijani relations, the
politician reported to Trend on 23 October by telephone from London.
"Establishing close political and economic relations with Armenia,
Ahmadinejad may bring harms to the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations
in the discussions regarding the legal status of Caspian Sea,"
Nourizadeh said.
According to him, in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Iran has always unambiguously supported Armenia. Iran
organized provocations in Azerbaijan during and after the war. There
are facts that the military groups ‘Sepah’, ‘Shimali Djeysh
Almehdi’ carried out espionage and provocations in the territory of
Azerbaijan. Due to ‘Sepah’, 16 people were arrested by Azerbaijan’s
Ministry of National Security.
During his visit to Armenia, Ahmadinejad repeatedly highlighted the
expression ‘Armenian genocide’. According to him, each year, actions
are held in Iran in this regard.
"Iranian president’s using the expression ‘Armenian genocide’ may
bring serious harms to the Iranian-Turkish and Iranian-Azerbaijani
relations. Despite this, Ahmadinejad states that his words have not
been directed against any countries," the politician said.
In addition, Nourizadeh expressed attitude towards Ahmadinejad’s
plans to construct a pipeline to Europe via Armenia. "In my opinion,
using the territory of Turkey for this purpose is more beneficial
for Iran. In addition, he spokes of plans to construct pipelines
via Azerbaijan, Armenia, Pakistan and Turkey. These plans require
billions. Iran itself has not such amounts of finance and no foreign
company is willing to invest in these plans. Thus, they will never
be realized," the politician said.