Toward a normalization of Azerbaijan-Iran relations

The recent visit to Iran of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, from Janurary 24th to 26th 2005, confirms the rapprochement between Tehran and Baku. Not only did he meet with the Iranian president Mohammad Khatami whom the presidential term of office will be ending soon, but Ilham Aliyev also met with le Guide Ali Khameney and Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsandjani – two of the most influent men of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Among the topics discussed the major ones were the condemnation of the Armenian occupation in Nagorno-Karabagh, the strengthening of economic bonds and the cooperation for fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime.
Furthermore, this visit was a follow up to the one of Khatami in Baku in August 2004. This visit ended up on the opening of a consulate of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tabriz and the signing of agreements for the improvement of communication infrastructures and energetic cooperation between the two countries. Those two official meetings show, if not proove, the undeniable rapprochement between Baku and Tehran – rapprochement initiated by Heydar Aliyev’s visit to Iran, early 2002.

And yet over the 90’s, there was an obvious distrust between the two capitals. This distrust was at its strongest point in July 2001 when an Iranian military ship demanded an oil prospecting ship coming form Azerbaijan to get away from the Iran territorial waters.

At the beginning, Iran saw USSR’s fall as a way to expand its influence in Central Asia and Caucasus, by taking advantage of their religious and cultural common history. Until it was conquered by the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century, the current territory of the Azerbaijani republic was an integral part of Iran. There the major ethnic group of the population is Shiite (the Azeris), which is also the main minority in Iran.

However, the new and weak republics of Central Asia and Caucasus choose to strongly assert their national indentity so as to prevent any foreign interference. The new president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Abulfaz Elçibey, takes a nationalist stance, especially agressive toward Iran. He asks for an Iranian Azerbaijan to secede from Iran, and for the creation of a great Azerbaijan of which the capital would be Tabriz.

South Caucasus