Iran has little to offer to dissuade Yerevan from moving ahead in
talks
23.05.2009 16:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For the past 3 centuries, the Caucasus has been the
thermometer for gauging power balances in the Iranian-Turkish- Russian
triangle. Since its independence from the former Soviet Union,
Azerbaijan has allied with linguistically, ethnically and culturally
similar Turkey, while Armenia allied first with Russia and more
recently with Iran. As regards Georgia, although it has attempted to
cast its sights further afield, forging ties with the West in general,
and the US in particular, it failed to escape the Russian grip, to
which testify the events of summer 2008, Al Ahram Arab periodical says
in an article entitled Caucasian triangles.
`Moscow has been keeping a close eye on the Turkish-Armenian
negotiations. Their success would usher in the Nabucco pipeline, which
would break Moscow’s monopoly with regard to the overland flow of
energy supplies to Europe. In addition, with the Armenian barrier
removed, Turkish influence in the Caucasus would outstrip that of its
Russian and Iranian rivals, as Ankara would be on good terms with all
three South Caucasus republics, in contrast to Russia and Iran’s good
relations with only one of them, Armenia,’ the article says.
According the newspaper, Iran, has little to offer to dissuade Yerevan
from moving ahead in its negotiations with Ankara. `It certainly
cannot vie with either Moscow or Ankara in offers of military or
economic aid. The most it has been able to do so far is to supply
Armenia with cheap energy in exchange for Armenia’s support against
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan fears that Ankara is preparing to sell it out
on the question of the return of Armenian occupied Nagorno-Karabakh,
which has not been made a point in the Turkish-Armenian negotiations,’
the author stresses.
`The Iranian-Turkish-Russian interplay in the Caucasus is instructive
on the dynamics of international power politics. It teaches us, above
all, that national interests prevail over ideology and sectarian or
ethnic allegiances in the forging or dissolution of bilateral
alliances,’ Al Ahram reports.