Alwaght- An armed attack cut off the diplomatic relations between two countries last year. On January 27, 2023, an armed man broke into the Azerbaijani embassy and clashed with the security. While many hostile media tried to give the attack a terrorist aspect, reports talked about personal motivation for the attacker. He had filed a suit for his missing wife and said he needed cooperation of the Azerbaijani embassy.
However, coincidence of the this incident with roughly pessimistic atmosphere of relations between the two countries for Karabakh developments resulted in a hasty move of Baku to sever ties with Tehran.
But since the relationship between the two countries is not only neighborly and the common culture, civilization and religion show the unbreakable bond between the two countries, doors of diplomatic relations were reopened. The resumption of Tehran-Baku relations promises more cooperation in many fields.
Certainly, return of the bilateral relations to normal and increase of cooperation are owed to efforts of the late President Ibrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who focused on constructive relations with neighbors. With the victory of Masoud Pezeshkian as new president after a deadly helicopter that killed the president, the FM and some others, President lham Aliyev of Azerbaijan sent a congratulation message to the president-elect, calling for boosting ties with Tehran and inviting the new president to visit Azerbaijan.
To discuss these developments in Tehran-Baku ties and the prospects of their relations, Alwaght talked to Ahad Ghazaee, former ambassador and consul of Iran to Azerbaijan.
Commenting on the reasons why the relations of the two countries went frayed, Mr Ghazaee said that the reason for closing down the embassy was the attack by a man who attacked the building of the embassy. The Azerbaijanis felt insecure and at the time of the attack, Aliyev was not in Baku, but he recalled the staff and ordered closure of the embassy until security is restored and not forever. Due to the fact that the attacker was arrested and tried and sentenced to death, Azerbaijan saw Iran's seriousness in dealing with the attacker. Currently, the Azerbaijani officials are present in Tehran for the reopening of the embassy, and the previous ambassador of Azerbaijan has returned to Tehran. And probably, the prime minister of this Azerbaijan will visit Tehran for Pezeshkian's inauguration.
The former ambassador to Azerbaijan added that he reviewed the speeches of Aliyev and other officials of Azerbaijan during the tensions. They are trying to take back an area of their country that they believe was occupied by Armenians. Heydar Aliyev, the former president and father of Ilham, decided to leave the resolution of this dispute to the Minsk Group and in this regard accepted the ceasefire. After 30 years and due to the indifference of the members of the Minsk Group, which consisted of France, the US and Russia, and despite the numerous visits, these countries had no desire to resolve this conflict. Finally, Azerbaijan decided to act on its own.
The Azerbaijani affairs expert added that Azerbaijan was planning to take action after rebuilding its army and military power that was a left of the Soviet time. This took time. Azerbaijan launched its attack after consulting Russia and won its green light beecause Russia has a military base in Armenia, and Baku could not take action without talks to Moscow. The US, on the other hand, was busy with its presidential elections. Within 44 days, Azerbaijan managed to take back most of its lands except Khan Kandi region. And this action also created tensions with Iran because part of those were a route through which Iranian was doing business with Armenia. After recapture, Azerbaijan said that any transportation from this route should take place with its authorization. Baku expected Iran to accept the new conditions and use the region with coordination and authorization of Azerbaijan. This issue caused misunderstanding.
Ghazaee also commented on the behavior of Baku and military drills in the region, saying that to flex muscles to Armenia, Azerbaijan staged military exercises with Turkey and Pakistan, sending Iran upset. Albeit Azerbaijan intended no tensions or confrontation with Iran. He said that he follows Aliyev's speeches and the Azerbaijani president never talked against Tehran. Even after liberation of Khodabandeh Bridge, Aliyev called it the bridge of Iran-Azerbaijan friendship.
Commenting on the approach of administration of President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi to Azerbaijan, Mr Ghazaee said that President Raisi understood the importance of relations with Azerbaijan and sought to expand ties with neighbors especially Baku. He was interested in ties with Azerbaijan and personally followed them. President Raisi held the initiative when it came to relations with Azerbaijan and in the last meeting he had with Aliyev, the Azerbaijani president looked highly happy to meet Raisi.
In another part of the interview, Ghazaee referred to the joint Khodaafarin and Ghezghaleh dam and the influence of the measures of Raisi administration on improvement of the economy of border regions. He said that Baku had asked Iran to build the dam jointly after liberation of Azerbaijani territory, but Iran built it independently using its own technology and ensured Baku that they will use it jointly after liberation of territory. Most of the residents of the border regions earn their income by doing business with neighboring country. In relation to Azerbaijan, the borders were open before the tensions erupted and the border people were doing business. But after the closure of the embassy, the people of these areas suffered the consequences.
At the end of the interview, Ghazaee assessed the current state of relations between the two countries, hoping that problems in their relations will be eliminated after reopening of embassy. He said that after Pezeshkian was announced winner of the election, Baku took no standing in relation to Iranian elections and Aliyev was among the first officials to congratulate the president-elect. Therfore, we can see the prospects of their bilateral ties bright.
