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 During the last two years, the stable tense relations of Azerbaijan and Iran are gradually being transformed to a critical situation. The new wave of tension of the Iranian – Azerbaijanian relations began when in 2011 the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev in his New Year’s speech addressed to the people declared himself the leader of Azaris of the world and afterwards was elected the chairman of the coordinating council of the International Congress of Azebaijanians (ICA), which caused a great protest among different state of society in Iran.

On this occasion the chairman of the National security and Foreign Policy Committee of the IRI Majlis Alaeddin Borujerdi announced that such imaginary declarations are not a new event among the leaders of Azerbaijan and it is their feeling of inferiority.

After Ilham Aliev’s the above – mentioned declaration the Iranian experts and famous media began speak more frequently about the problems of ethnic minorities in Iran mentioning that in a country where live ethic minorities such as talishes, lezgis, avars,tats and whose rights are restricted, the president of that country simply has no right to speak about problems of Azaris.

The former governor of Ardebeli, Iranian expert of the problems of Caucasus Mansur Haghighatpur declare in relation with this: “The leader of Azaris of the world should be a person who knows completely the history and civilization, culture and language of Azerbaijan. He doesn’t know yet the scientific and historic definitions of Azarians. Ilham Aliev is unaware of historic facts and events: according to historic documents the present republic of Azerbaijan has been created on the territory Aran.”

The chief of the GS of the AF of Iran, general of brigade, seyyed Hanson Firuzabadi in his declaration addressed to Ilham Aliev instead of the name “Republic of Azerbaijan” used the name of the historic place Aran and mentioned that the people of present Azerbaijan have Iranian blood.

The antiiranian policy of Azerbaijan is not restricted only to exploiting the ethnic problems of Turkish speaking Azaris, but according to the Iranian side is manifested in factual processes, particularly in textbooks of the schools in Azerbaijan, in maps some northern regions of Iran are represented as a part of Azerbaijan and recently the deputies of the Azerbaijan Majlis have appeared with an initiative that proposed to rename the country as “Northern Azerbaijan.”

In return to such declarations of Azerbaijan deputies, the deputies of Iranian Majlis elected in Urmia, Tavriz and Ardebili declared that if the responsible officials of Azerbaijan continue their antiiranian policy, the project of revising the contract of Turkmenchay will be included in the agenda of sessions of Mejlis by Azarian speaking deputies and in case of revising historical contracts the territory of Azerbaijan will be joined to Iran.

There are some other factors except the mutual accusations between Iran and Azerbaijan about historical, cultural as well as ethnic problems of Turkish speaking Azaris , that are the cause of tense relations of the two countries. Particularly, the Iranian side accuses Azerbaijan of supporting in governmental level the terrorist groupings “ Monafeghin” and “Pejak”, delating an antiiranian activity (According to the Iranian press, the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan cooperates with the agents of terrorist groupings “ Monafeghin” and “ Mosadi”).

Let us mention that Ramin Mehmanparast, press commentator of the ministry of Foreign Affairs of the IRI announced: “ The actions of the terrorist organization “ Monafeghin” are so inhuman that no country can defend them. I hope that the terrorist organization “ Monafeghin “ whose actions are the cause of the immolation of 12000 Iranians , will stop its activity in Azerbaijan”.
The armed occurrences frequently taking place in the boundary of Iran and Azerbaijan are also the cause of tension in bilateral relations. On October 19, 2011, when the workers of the frontiers-sentry service killed a 20 year` s old Iranian soldier, the Azerbaijanian ambassador in the IRI Javanshir Akhundov was called to the FA ministry , where the note of the Iranian protest was announced to him. General Hoseyn Zolfaghari, commander of the frontiers-sentry service of police , criticizing the actions of the Azerbaijanian frontiers-men mentioned : “ The actions of the Azerbaijanian frontiers- men are completely unacceptable and have no explanation, as they must not release several bullets from back and behind of an unarmed soldier”.

Continuing the theme of the actions of the antiiranian terrorist groupings in Azerbaijan , let us mention that because the terrorists who had killed the Iranian scientists had free locomotion in Azerbaijan , in these days the Azerbaijanian ambassador in the IRI was again called to the FA Ministry, where it was demanded that the Azerbaijanian government prohibited the antiiranian actions of Musadi taking place in their country.

These are not the only accusations addressed to the embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran. Ebrahim Ghafarov, adviser of the embassy of Azerbaijan in Iran , envoy declared in these days his point of view about the “ gay- parade” that will take place in Baku and it also caused a wave of protest among media. The deputy chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the IRI Majlis , speaking about the above mentioned problem, underlined: “ Majlis will not remain indifferent to the above –mentioned problem, me , as a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Majlis will claim that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discusses that question and if it is found out that he ( E. Ghafarov ) is homosexual , the Azerbaijanian diplomatist will be expelled from the country at the first occasion”.

The problems connected with the activities of the representations of Iran in Azerbaijan also have their bad influence on the bilateral relations.

Thus, the Security forces of Azerbaijan have recently attacked Ali Khamenei`s , the Supreme leader`s of Iran office in Baku, breaking the glasses and causing a considerable damage to the property of the office. Azerbaijan restricts the activity of the Iranian representations in that country.
According to Iranian media, the FA Ministry of Azerbaijan has declared officially that none of the workers of the Cultural Center of Iran in Azerbaijan , as well as “ Hoseynie” ( prayer- room , place of gathering of shias) operating adherent to the office of the Supreme leader of the IRI in Baku will be furthermore given a licence of access.

There are serious disagreements between Tehran and Baku also in the informational sphere. The two countries often accuse each other’s media of interfering into the internal affairs of the countries. In order to have negotiations about this problem in 2011 a delegation headed by the chairman the social-political department of the Azerbaijanian president’s staff Ali Hasanov made a labor visit to Tehran but a few days after the latter’s visit to Tehran the director of the office of Baku of the Iranian TV radio company Ahmad Khazemi was driven out from Azerbaijan with his family. And these days the journalists of the Iranian information agency “Fars” and the office of Baku of the TV channel “Sahar” were arrested by the officials of national security of Azerbaijan.
There are also some disagreements in the positions of Tehran and Baku in connection with the legal status of the Caspian Sea as well as ecological problems.

The 5 countries that are flowed by the Caspian Sea : Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan , Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have some disagreements about the legal status of the Caspian Sea. Iran suggests to divide it into five equal parts. Iran and Azerbaijan have different attitudes towards this question. In connection with this problem the press spokesman of the FA ministry of Iran Ramin Mehmanparast has declared recently that as long as the interests of Iran about the legal definition of the legal status of the Caspian Sea are not completely secured Iran will not agree with any variant of division of the sea.

At the end of 2011 when Iran declared that has found a new mine of gas in the Caspian Sea there were some commentators in the Azerbaijanian side that the new mine is located in disputable spaces. In response to these declarations the national company of oil of Iran spread a message mentioning that the new mine of gas is located in waters that are under power of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan has no part in them. The vice president of Iran, the chairman of the organization of protection of the environment of Iran , Mohammad Javad Mohammadzade also often touching upon the ecological problems of the Caspian sea mentioned many times that it is Azerbaijan that pollutes the Caspian sea as a result of extract of oil and pays no attention to the problem of the protection of environment most of all.

As to the political relations of Iran and Azerbaijan let us mention that bilateral communication is passive in this sphere. The IRI ambassador in Azerbaijan several times officially invited Ilham Aliev to visit Iran but the president of Azerbaijan refused all the invitations and in 2011 sent the deputy prime minister as his representative in order to take part in the celebrations of Noruz in Iran.
In March 2011, the tripartite meeting of the FA ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey took place in Urmia at the end of the meeting the participant countries declared that the 2nd meeting wil be in October , in Nakhijevan. But the fact of the Azerbaijanian border-guards` killing the Iranian soldier as well as the opposite positions of Iran and Turkey about the question of Syria caused that meeting to be put of for an indefinite time .

At the beginning of 2012 the sides declared again that the delayed meeting of Nakhijevan would take place in mid January 2012, but this time also the tripartite meeting was delayed for no solid reasons.