A new diplomatic dispute is developing between Baku and Tehran? | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Rachel Abraham | 20 Tevet 5785 Monday January 20, 2025

Photo credit: Azerbaijan News Agency

In recent days, during a Shiite religious event in the city of Ardabil, located in the Azerbaijani province of Iran, harsh words were directed at Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ayatollah Sayyed Hassan Ameli, representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Ardabil, was present at the event. The Ardabil event, the first of its kind in the history of Islamic republics, commemorated the martyrs of the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. The battle between the Safavid Shiite Empire of Iran and the Sunni Ottoman Empire took place in ended with an Ottoman victory.

At the event, Gholamreza Gholizadeh, a Shiite secular eulogist, called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan scumbags and consumers of illegally acquired food. Gholizadeh also said Iran would regain its ancient Caucasus territories lost during the Russo-Persian Wars (1651-1828) and raise the Shiite flag there, reported Iran International, an Iranian dissident website. The speech also included insults towards Sunnis. This is not the first time that Ayatollah Ameli's name has been associated with populist and inflammatory statements by Iran against Azerbaijan.

In one of his past sermons, Ayatollah Ameli advised Azerbaijan “not to play with the lion’s tail,” of course referring to Iran as the lion. As Ayatollah Ameli is not a private man, his opinions and statements may reflect Iran's true position. Additionally, this religious event was broadcast live on Iran's official news network, further raising suspicions about Iran's responsibility for Gholizadeh's harsh remarks.

Azerbaijan's response was rapid. Sayyed Jafar Agai Merian, Attaché for Iranian Affairs in Azerbaijan, was summoned to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, where it was made clear that Azerbaijan demanded an end to such provocations. The last time Azerbaijan officially summoned the Iranian representative to reprimand him was after the terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran.

Furthermore, President Ilham Aliyev was interviewed by Azerbaijani media regarding relations between Iran and Azerbaijan. He claimed that the terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran in April 2023 was ordered by Iranian authorities: “First, for about 40 minutes, no police cars arrived at the scene, although this happened in the center of the capital. The next day, the terrorist was immediately declared mentally ill, although any medical examination takes several days. The same day, the perpetrator of the attack gave an interview to the media. Two years have passed since the incident, and to this day the verdict against this person has not been carried out. All this suggests that it was organized,” underlined the President.

When President Aliyev addressed Ayatollah Amelis' presence at the event, he asked: “What does the one who appointed him to this post think about the offensive remarks made by this provincial mullah?” Of course, Aliyev was referring to whether Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei supported Gholizadeh's slanderous comments. Aliyev argued that Iran considered Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in Karabakh a personal loss in the conflict and therefore hardened its stance towards Azerbaijan. On January 7, he demanded a public apology from Iran, which is unlikely to happen and could lead to a new crisis in relations between the two countries.

Beyond Iran-Azerbaijan relations, Iran recently suffered a major blow following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham replaced the Alawite dynasty and maintains close ties with Turkey, a country which is not on good terms with Iran. The fall of Assad, combined with the heavy blows received by Israel's Hezbollah during Operation Iron Swords, which nearly caused the collapse of the Lebanese terrorist organization, led to Iran losing its “crescent Shiite.”

The “Shia Crescent” refers to the territorial corridor connecting Iran, Iraq, Assad's Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon, all under Iranian leadership. Iran lost its land access to the Mediterranean Sea and became more vulnerable. Iran had managed to keep its military conflicts outside its own soil, but today, in the current situation, it is losing this advantage, while Turkey has gained influence in Syria and Iraq, positioning itself as the main mediator between the United States, the Gulf countries, and the new Syria.

Tehran fears that Ankara will manage to reproduce this success in other strategic areas, such as the Caucasus, geographically much closer to Iran than Syria or Lebanon. A real and painful Iranian defeat would occur if Azerbaijan took control of the Zanguezur corridor, thereby blocking the territorial link between Iran and Armenia.