YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—High-ranking representatives of Azerbaijan’s ruling party have blamed Armenia and the worldwide “Armenian lobby” for their country’s mounting tensions with Iran that led Tehran to withdraw its ambassador from Baku on Tuesday.
The envoy was recalled “for consultations” after months of bitter recriminations traded by the two neighboring nations over alleged interference in each other’s affairs.
Iran has accused fellow Shia Muslim Azerbaijan of helping Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists and facilitating possible Israeli and U.S. air strikes against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities. The Azerbaijani government strongly denies this, saying implicitly that Tehran itself has been fomenting Islamic extremism on its territory. Dozens of people have been arrested in Azerbaijan this year on suspicion of links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Earlier this month, hundreds of angry Azerbaijanis demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy in Baku in a series of apparently government-organized protests. They condemned, among other things, Iran’s warm ties with Christian Armenia. Some of the protesters carried derogatory pictures of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Tehran reacted angrily to the protests this week, with a senior Iranian cleric reportedly urging Muslims in the region to protest the Azerbaijani government’s “anti-Islamic” behavior. In particular, Ayatollah Sobhani cited Baku’s hosting of the annual Eurovision Song Contest that began on Tuesday.
The ensuing departure of the Iranian ambassador drew a strong condemnation from senior members of Azerbaijan’s government-controlled parliament. “The Armenian lobby is behind the anti-Azerbaijani propaganda conducted against the background of the Eurovision song contest,” the parliament speaker, Oktay Asadov, was quoted by the Baku daily “Zerkalo” as saying.
“Armenian [Internet] sites reported beforehand on the scenario of the anti-Azerbaijani campaign launched in Iran,” Asadov said during a parliament session. “There is evidence of that.”
Mubariz Gurbanli, the deputy executive secretary of President Ilham Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaycan Party, likewise alleged on Wednesday close cooperation between the Iranian leadership and “the Armenian lobby.” “Some circles as well as groups within the current Iranian regime are repeating the actions of the Armenian lobby and executing its orders,” he said, according to the Trend news agency.
Gurbanli claimed that the Armenians also had a hand in recent anti-Aliyev demonstrations held in Tebriz, a city in northern Iran mostly populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis. He also made the point that Azerbaijan’s victory in last year’s Eurovision, which entitled it to hosting the 2012 show, demonstrated his country’s “superiority over Armenia.”
“Worried about this success by Azerbaijan, the Armenian side is making every effort to hinder this event and denigrate it in eyes of others,” the Azerbaijani official charged.
Armenia announced earlier this year that it will boycott the Eurovision show in Baku because of Aliyev’s March 1 remark that “the Armenians of the world” are his nation’s main enemy.
The Azerbaijani president made a similar, albeit more carefully worded, statement on April 16. “For us, the number one enemy is the Armenian lobby,” he said, holding it responsible for Western criticism of his government’s poor human rights record.
FYI to the idiots in baku, the Armenian lobby has finally partnered with the aliens in area 51 to disrupt world oil prices. Proven fact, the Armenian lobby has partnered with lepricons and is behind the disappearing of the azerbaijani oil tanker off the waters of somali this week.
The Armenian lobby is a bunch of Iranian agents, really! Is it too late to call my credit card company and cancel my donation? Aram, I need answers here!
I wonder how the Shia Azeri citizens feel about the fact that their government has managed to put them at odds with their fellow Shia Iranian neighbor. The politics of the situation always escapes the masses. What filters down and is visible to them makes little sense. Aliyev has no choice but to blame those that are the receiving end of most of his bigoted rhetoric… our people. The shallow and fractured Azeri administration is showing it cards.
Yes, the “Armenian lobby” is the one responsible for Azerbaijan agreeing to host Israeli military hardware on ex-soviet bases as a jump off point in a possible strike against the Azeri’s neighbor state Iran.
Why should Iran be angry with Azeri goat herders, after all, the only little thing the Azeris are doing is harboring Iran’s direct global adversery (Israel) right in Iran’s back yard at a critical juncture in Iran’s geopolitical development, now WHY ON EARTH would the Iranians be angry with such a “innocent” maneuver by the Azeris, oh yes, we know why, it’s the “Armenian lobby’s” doing.
The propaganda filled stupidity of Aliyev & Co. has reach a new neanderthal low. For their next trick, they are going to try and procreate with goats, or have they been doing that already?
You got it all wrong. It is sheep not goats. Don’t you know why Azery/Tatars wear high boots?
Wow.. For a small nation we seem to cause quite a stir according to the Azeri’s.
Now I know what the Jewish people feel like when all the ills in the Muslim world and the global economy are blamed on them.
Poor Azeri’s if they measure superiority by success in Eurovision then Enough said.
Paranoia strikes deep.
It is the treachery of the Aliev clan who are puppets of Israel has caused Iran to hate them. The Azeris are actively assisting Azeri terrorists within Iran to commit terrorist acts to incite the a civil war in Iran and to promote the separation of Iranian-Azerbaijan to join the Republic of Azerbaijan. Most Iranian Azeris want nothing to do with their so called cousins up North because they are snakes.
DNA studies have the last word on the subject! The Turkish speaking population of Northern Iran is an acculturated Iranian population.They are not Turks. The fact that the Iranian government is ignoring this problem will come to haunt them. If I had any influence on the Iranian government, I would advise them to impose a universal DNA testing program, camouflaged as desease inoculation. That way, they would know for sure, and be able to stamp all passports with with a code, and be able to prove to the population that they were victimized in the past, and deprived of their culture by the Turks. And as far as the Azery / Tatar DNA, the results show conclusively that they are acculturated Armenians. And that is a problem. It was easy to hate them when they were Mongols. But they are us. Just a little inbred. What do we do now?
You can’t compare Iranian-Azeris with the Russian-Azeris. The Russian Azeris are thoroughly Turkified.It is like comparing North and South Korea.
Iranians are not stupid, how can Baku Blame ‘Armenian Lobby’ For Brewing Feud With Iran, if Azerbaijan himslef is backing the Azeris in Iran to claim Iranian land to anex with Azerbiajan,
Short brained dictator horsey Alioff and his beloved fake brainwashed AzerPYjani nation playing with a lion tail!!
he is playing an Armenian card, in order to control his primitive fake Sheikhdom people’s faith, and his lovely oil fields!!
I wonder from when these new “free style” mad cow mania demonstrators allowed to run in a dictatorial place like azerbaboon!!
Man, those people got to be really gullible… The trouble your country is experiencing with Iran is thanks to a pretty much nonexistant Armenian lobby and definately not because of your new close ties to Israel. At the same time your government claims that there are 30 mil of 80 mil Azeris in Iran. This makes total of nearly 40 mil of 90 mil Azeris in the two countries, with 200.000 Armenians… Man, those Armenian batards are usin all their force to harm you, how else could those claims be explained in light of the miserable population compared to the Azeri one? But numbers don’t talk to Turks, only emotions and lies…
Oh and you are welcome to show us your superiority through winning the paralympics of singing any day, whatever floats your boat…
if the cat had kittens blame armenia.when will u grow up azerbaijan
lol… a new word in their dictionary… “Armenphobia” lol
I wonder if Voting Armenian People in Armenia know “Who” is running the Armenian Lobby!!!
I think Azerbaijan and its government should get the gold medal for stupidity. I wish Iran or any country for that matter cared enough about The “Armenian lobby” or Armenians to make significant foreign policy decisions in favor of us. I learned something very interesting from a Persian friend of mine. He told me that Iranians are made up of five different tribes and one of the tribes is Azeri…basically that Azeris are ethnically brothers with Iranians. Just because Iran is not taking part in the strangulation/blockade of Armenia doesn’t mean that Armenians are behind the problems between Azerbaijan and Iran. Azeris are really really stupid…maybe Gulen needs to build his schools in Azerbaijan instead of the US.
You might want to ask your Iranian friend what is the term they use to refer to azeri’s. Hint, sounds similar to the word sister, but means jackass, that’s too politically correct, I meant to say ESH 😉
Watch al jazera’s program on house demolishings in Azerbaijan, and how Aliyev and his gang are displacing their own.
This is genious. I Think ilham Aliev has shot himself on the foot by winning the Eurovision song contest. Now it’s dirty laundery is common knowledge all over the world.
IlhaV, vontz el havou khelk ounes.
turkish donkeys never seem to miss the opportunity to bray at an humans..
The Azeris have allowed Israel to use it’s bases to attack Iran . What else is Iran supposed to do. Iran will obviously take action against the Azeri snake trying to destroy it.
Im LOL-ing at this right now. Eshi satkats gyoren…Azerbaijan yev turkya, mi or duk kake k’ngnek oo dukel chek imana. Disgrace to humans.