NEW TENSIONS COMPLICATE RELATIONS BETWEEN BAKU AND TEHRAN
By Fariz Ismailzade
Regnum, Russia
March 30 2006
More than 600 representatives of Azerbaijani diaspora organizations
in 49 countries assembled in Baku on March 16 for the second World
Azerbaijani Congress. The event was organized by the State Committee
on the Affairs of Azerbaijanis Living Abroad, which was established
in 2003 by a decree from then-President Heydar Aliyev to help unite
all Azerbaijanis abroad.
The event was grandiose both in scale and impact. The goal of showing
the unity of millions of Azerbaijanis around the world for the sake
of an independent, strong, and prosperous Azerbaijan was achieved.
The Congress discussed issues regarding coordination among the
Azerbaijani diaspora organizations, strengthening relations with other
nations’ diaspora organizations, promoting information about Azerbaijan
around the world, and building relations with foreign governments.
As a result of the Congress’ work, a new strategy was developed
regarding the activities of the Azerbaijani diaspora in other countries
and the joint activities of the Azerbaijani and Turkish diaspora
organizations. Moreover, Congress participants adopted a resolution
addressed to Azerbaijanis around the world, foreign governments,
and international organizations regarding Armenian aggression toward
Azerbaijan.
Yet, the Congress made news not so much for its work, but for a row
that erupted between Azerbaijan and Iran after the Congress. The
Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Afshar Suleymani, reacted
very angrily and emotionally to the speeches given at the World
Azerbaijani Congress by some representatives of Azerbaijani diaspora
organizations in Europe. These delegates called for the unification
of North Azerbaijan (the independent Republic of Azerbaijan) and South
Azerbaijan (in northern Iran, populated by Azerbaijanis and considered
by Azerbaijanis as part of a once-unified Azerbaijani state). The
speech by Javad Derekhti, an Azerbaijani from the Iranian Azerbaijan,
was particularly provocative, because he talked about human rights
violations suffered by ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran (Trend News Agency,
March 16).
The Treaty of Turkmanchai in 1828, which ended the three-decade
Russian-Iranian War eventually divided Azerbaijan into two parts
along the banks of the Araz River. It is estimated that more than 25
million ethnic Azerbaijanis currently live in Iran, but they have no
rights to be educated in their native language and any attempts to
organize movements for cultural autonomy are strongly repressed by
the authorities in Tehran. Iran is extremely touchy about this issue
and has kept its distance from official Baku for most of the 1990s
exactly because of the issue of Azerbaijani separatism in Iran.
Suleymani tore into these speeches in a press release from the Iranian
embassy on March 17. “Iran is deeply upset about the participation
of some anti-Iranian elements in the Congress and their provocative
statements on the issues of Iran’s domestic affairs,” it read. “The
Embassy considers these steps to contradict the friendly relations
between the brotherly nations and those commitments taken by the
Azerbaijani government in the treaty of 2002, sighed in Tehran. The
Embassy is very surprised about the references at the Congress
to the Turkmanchai Treaty of 1828 and mentioning Azerbaijan as a
divided country.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry also sent a protest note to the
Azerbaijani ambassador in Iran. The row intensified after remarks
by the Iranian ambassador regarding Azerbaijani poets Nizami and
Shahriyar, whom he called “Iranian poets.” This caused an immediate
protest from the Azerbaijani Writers Union, saying, “The Union deeply
regrets and is surprised that the ambassador made such remarks and
demands an immediate end to such uneducated discoveries” (APA News
Agency, March 24).
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted to the Iranian
ambassador’s complaints by asking him to calm his emotions. Speaking
at a press conference the next day, Tahir Tagi-zadeh, the head of
the informational department of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign
Affairs said, “The speeches made at the World Azerbaijani Congress
by representative of the public organizations are their personal
opinions. The emotional speeches of the ambassadors might spoil
the cooperation based on the principles of friendship and good
neighborliness” (day.az, March 17).
Nazim Ibrahimov, head of the State Committee on the Affairs of
Azerbaijanis Living Abroad, also downplayed the significance of
speeches, saying they were private opinions of Congress participants.
“The State Committee has functioned for three years already, and we
have never interfered in the internal issues of Iran” he explained
(AzTV, March 20).
The issue continues to be a hot topic of discussion in the local
press, with a majority of Azerbaijani politicians and intelligentsia
condemning the actions of the Iranian ambassador and calling for a
renewed discussion of the human rights situation of Azerbaijanis in
Iran. Yet some diplomats and experts in the country believe that the
Iranian ambassador’s remarks were intentionally aggressive, meant to
scare off the United States from using the ethnic card to weaken the
regime in Tehran.