Iran woos Azerbaijan as Israel moves closer

[King_David]

Growing military, intelligence and commercial ties between Baku and Israel appear to be of concern to Tehran.

Iran is persisting in a strategy of courting deeper ties with Azerbaijan, as growing military, intelligence and commercial ties between its northern neighbor and Israel continue to be a source of deep concern to Tehran.

In Iran’s latest overture to Baku, its ambassador to Azerbaijan offered on Thursday to establish a joint Iranian-Azeri Chamber of Commerce, with the aim of deepening relations between the two countries, Azeri news agency Trend reported.

The Iranian Embassy in Baku said that Mohsen Pak Ayeen had told the head of Azerbaijan’s Chamber of Commerce that Iran also wants to develop private sector initiatives in both countries.

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=294055

[King_David]

1. Ha ha ,

'Religious tensions between the two states soared in May when Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, which Iran insisted included a “gay parade” and slammed as undermining Islamic values.'

[Alamuti Lotus]

3. that was a fairly poor point to demonstrate the actually real religious tensions between the two..

the Azeri dictators (Aliyev father and son) are actually far from being "secular" (as claimed in the piece), both have been quite close to the regime in Saudi-occupied Arabia and have given favorable treatment to Wahhabi preachers and pseudo-social organizations in the post-Soviet era, in league with and somewhat linked to affairs in the North Caucasus. This has been a constant source of tension with the largely Jaafari & Ismaili population of Azeris, among other primary sources of tension like the utterly kleptocratic and pseudo-dictatorial nature of the post-Soviet gov't. The only thing the Aliyev's have been able to counter this with is anti-Armenian sentiment; nationalist fervor always seems to work as a suitable distraction for bad leaders in a pinch.

The growing ties of the Aliyev dictatorship to Israel is not really surprising, but rather a quixotic (if not an entirely cynical marriage of convenience on both ends) result of regional factors and the ongoing state of war between Armenia-Azeris. Russia and Iran have been friendlier with Armenia, it naturally follows that the Aliyev regime would seek ties to their primary enemies to counter-balance. Seems that the Azeri dictator does not completely trust the backing it would receive from US/Turkey/Israel--(powers which are largely on the decline, globally)--in the event that push again comes to shove over Nagorno-Karabakh, and hedges their bets with the one emerging power next door.

[bemildred]

11. Ah thanks, that clarifies much.

I've been wondering why they (Iran, Azeris) were on such bad terms for some time now.

The OP seems to be useless shit-stirring.

[shaayecanaan]

15. Armenia is where irony goes to die...

Turkey, of course, refuses to recognise the Armenian genocide.

Israel, for its part, refuses to recognise the Armenian genocide, and Shimon Peres has gone so far to say that it never happened:-

http://www.giwersworld.org/israel/fisk6.phtml

For its part, the United States has always refused to recognise the Armenian genocide as well, in no small part due to the concerted work of both Turkish and Jewish groups within the United States.

On the other hand, the Armenian genocide has been recognised by no less than the vice-president of Iran:-

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&n=iran-armenia-relations-and-the-8216genocide8217-2010-08-29

Its a good job that Shimon Peres only does callow, footsucking interviews with wall-eyed idiots like Wolf Blitzer, or else he might be in danger of someone pointing out the extravagance of his hypocrisy, given his pontificating about Iran failing to properly recognise the holocaust.

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/11/no-balance-cnn-slobbers-over-peres-grills-meshaal.html

[King_David]

16. Yes but things are changing sinceTurkey's and Israel's chilly relationship,

Jews becoming increasingly aware of Armenian Genocide and its commemoration
armenian genocide
April 23, 2012
By: Adam Taxin

Published Monday, April 23, 2012, 11:03 AM


Spurred in part by the current Tayyip Erdogan-led Turkish government's increasing tilt toward Iran and hostility toward Israel, members of local Jewish communities are paying more, some might say overdue, attention to the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, as well as to the Turkish government's continuing minimization of the numbers and nature of the massacres that occurred.

In April 1915, with World War I underway, the Turkish-dominated government of the Ottoman Empire systematically and quite horrifically murdered somewhere between 1.0 million and 1.5 million of its Armenian (Christian) citizens, in the event that has become known as the Armenian Genocide.

The massacres have been recognized as a "genocide" by 22 countries, including Uruguay (the first to do so, in 1965), Canada, Argentina, Sweden, Vatican City, Russia, Germany, Venezuela and Lebanon but not the United States or Israel. 43 individual U.S. states – Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware all included – also have recognized the massacres as a "genocide."

http://www.examiner.com/article/jews-becoming-increasingly-aware-of-armenian-genocide-and-its-commemoration

[shaayecanaan]

18. Yes, the recent fracas between Israel and Turkey has cooled things somewhat...

but not fundamentally. The conflict in Syria with Turkey on one side and Russia and Iran on the other simply confirms this.

Its also worth noting that neither Israel nor the US has been willing to recognise the Armenian genocide to date. Its also the case that the anti-Armenian members of Congress (most notably Steve Cohen of Tennessee) are trumpeting their wares as much as they ever did:-

http://azerbaijanamericaalliance.org/uploads/files/pdf/February,%2014,%202012%20Hon.%20Steve%20Cohen.pdf

[bemildred]

19. What can I say?

Irony is all around, once you start to notice it. Genocide is such a political football, I refuse to discuss it, nobody appreciates it anyway, ruins the mood, but there is always genocide watch, for the deadpan version:

http://www.genocidewatch.org/

[Alamuti Lotus]

2. Iran has more traditionally been closer to Armenia..

the piece does not adequately address that point.

And in apropo of nothing, I always found it interesting that there are more Azeris living in Iran than under the jurisdiction of the post-Soviet Azerbaijan gov't.

[King_David]

4. How come?

For Economic reasons?

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. yes, that is part of it

the Turkish gov't has also traditionally had more influence over the independent Azeri state (both being descended from the various Turkish tribes that migrated from Asia and traditional enemies and rivals of the Armenian and Kurdish forces in the area), so Armenia provides a favorable economic relationship to Russia and Iran to keep a sufficient balance of things. Also see above for a few more notes on this, I added much in subsequent edits.

[Alamuti Lotus]

6. to answer your question from the other thread..

the Sun is what you get when the New York Post's 'Page Six' has a bastard child with the human embodiment of a soccer riot, only there's more naked breasts mixed in with the crude political and celebritarian gossip and myopic obsession with the royal family. It is the journalistic manifestation of rancid clam chowder, but again, with boobs involved to keep the knuckledraggers happy.

[King_David]

7. Thank you,

That is why I deleted the post.

[Alamuti Lotus]

8. I saw the deletion..

but I did have a couple of very evocative metaphors lined up that I was quite proud of ("human embodiment of a soccer riot"/"journalistic manifestation of rancid clam chowder&quot , so I still threw that out there.

[King_David]

9. Yes I noticed,

And appreciated them quietly, without comment.

[shaayecanaan]

17. You may find it easier

thinking of the Caucasus in terms of Turkey and Russia. This is the Great Fight, the two have been at loggerheads since the times of Genghis Khan, and will always be, apart from a brief but fateful period during the Turkish War of Independence when the newly minted Bolsheviks gave support to the Turkish nationalists largely out of a desire to repudiate Czarist foreign policy in as many ways as possible.

Thinking of things in those terms, you have Turkey, Azerbaijan, NATO, Israel and Georgia on one hand, and Russia, Armenia, and Iran on the other.

[oberliner]

10. Israeli-Azeri drones conduct spy missions along Iran border: Report

This is from Iran's Press TV:

Azerbaijan is operating drones assembled with the help of Israeli experts to carry out spying missions over its common borders with Iran and Karabakh, a new report says.

According to the report, following a rise in the US radar activities in the Astara Rayon region of Azerbaijan as well as the presence of Israeli military advisors in the country, Azerbaijan has been using Orbiter ultra-light drones assembled with the help of Israeli experts to carry out operations along the border with Iran and Karabakh.

According to Iranian military experts, Azerbaijan also uses Hermes-450 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for control and surveillance missions.

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/12/08/276935/israeliazeri-drones-spying-over-iran/

[Ken Burch]

12. Netanyahu needs to give up on bombing Iran.

It's unjustifiable to do it at this point...and all that such a bombing could possibly achieve would be to GIVE Iran a justification for attacking Israel back...a justification it doesn't have at present. Bombing Iran would guarantee that Iran, in response, would become obsessed with actually building a nuclear weapons program and actually going after Israel.

There are no possible short-term gains that make it make sense to create that situation.

[King_David]

13. You should post that in a relevant thread. nt

[Ken Burch]

14. It pertains to this thread because the possible bombing of Iran was referenced in the OP.

n/t.