Iranian-Armenian relations

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Really great idea, but are we exporting or importing electricity?

Both...Armenian uses the electrical power on powerplants to generate more electricity and send it back to Iran, Iranian power grid system is a mess and it is better for them to do it this way, not to mention economical and political values.

Stratigically this is more control for Armenia of northern Iran's electrical power supply where most Azaris live. Even today electrical power is limited and outages happen often....some of the residents are already blaiming the Armenians for these outages.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Iran to build 3rd electricity transmission line to Armenia
Tehran Times Economic Desk

TEHRAN – Construction of the third electricity transmission line from Iran to Armenia, with the capacity of 800-900 mega watts, will start within two weeks, IRNA quoted Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjoo as saying.

On the sidelines of his meeting with Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan here on Sunday, Namjoo added that the project will cost up to 110 million dollars.

The meeting was held in line with the two countries’ joint economic committee meeting which is chaired by Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Akbar Salehi and Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan, Namjoo said.

He went on to say that establishing a hydro-electric power plant on Aras River was another subject of negotiations between the two countries, based on which a 180-megawatt power plant will be built in Iran and another 180-megawatt power plant will be built in Armenia.

Accordingly, a consortium comprised of Iranian companies is established to pursue construction of the power plant in Armenia at the cost of some 450-500 million dollars, he further said.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=241671

Really great idea, but are we exporting or importing electricity?

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations


Iran to build 3rd electricity transmission line to Armenia
Tehran Times Economic Desk

TEHRAN – Construction of the third electricity transmission line from Iran to Armenia, with the capacity of 800-900 mega watts, will start within two weeks, IRNA quoted Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjoo as saying.

On the sidelines of his meeting with Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan here on Sunday, Namjoo added that the project will cost up to 110 million dollars.

The meeting was held in line with the two countries’ joint economic committee meeting which is chaired by Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Akbar Salehi and Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan, Namjoo said.

He went on to say that establishing a hydro-electric power plant on Aras River was another subject of negotiations between the two countries, based on which a 180-megawatt power plant will be built in Iran and another 180-megawatt power plant will be built in Armenia.

Accordingly, a consortium comprised of Iranian companies is established to pursue construction of the power plant in Armenia at the cost of some 450-500 million dollars, he further said.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=241671

[Mos]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

....

President of Iran to visit Armenia




May 28, 2011 | 18:28


President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Armenia on June 6-8, informs Iranian agency FARS.

The president will have meetings with his Armenian colleague Serz Sargsyan and high ranked officials.

[Mos]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

....

Iran tries to cajole both Armenia and Azerbaijan, expert says
May 19, 2011 - 13:34 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Following the Iranian Ayatollah's statement suggesting his country helped Azerbaijan in Karabakh war years, Iran attempted to cajole both Armenia and Azerbaijan, while counteracting Turkey, according to director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS).
As Manvel Sargsyan stated at a discussion titled “Karabakh Issue in Armenia and International Scene: New Situation, Old Approaches”, the statement by the Iranian Embassy in Armenia, which stressed Tehran's respect for the nations’ right for self-determination and Iran's protesting the stationing of foreign troops in the region, proves the above-mentioned fact.
As the expert noted, the statement of Ayatollah was a was a well-thought move, as a spiritual leader couldn’t have been informed of military sector-related details. “It's a political step. Iran is attempting to hold control of both Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Sargsyan said.

[Artsakh]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Geopolitical symbiosis: Iran, Armenia share goals as per current regional balance of forces

Some experts believe that drastic changes may be expected in the South Caucasus and the broader region and do not exclude shifts in the domestic political landscape in Iran. Others believe that there will be unexpected processes in the Karabakh conflict zone.


In any case, the end of last week was marked by a sort of resurgence in the Armenian-Iranian relations as Yerevan hosted a special envoy of the Iranian president and the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Armenia issued a statement unprecedented by some of its contents.

Official reports on the meetings of the special envoy with the president and the foreign minister of Armenia only say that the sides discussed the course of the implementation of agreements reached during the meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Iran in March. However, later the Iranian embassy highlighted the theme of the talks more clearly when it released a statement about the official position of the Islamic state, effectively refuting the statement made earlier by a senior Iranian cleric that during the 1992-1994 war in Karabakh at the informal level Iran supported Azerbaijan.

Experts believe that despite the apparent confrontation between the religious and political leaderships in Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have sent his special envoy to Armenia in order to enlist Armenia’s support in the event of possible new developments in domestic matters in Iran, as conflict appears to be emerging in the upper echelons of power in the Islamic Republic.

Today Armenia is all but the sole partner of Iran in the region, and if the Armenian leadership issued harsh criticism of Iran in connection with an Iranian imam’s statements on the Karabakh problem and waived the joint transport and energy projects, then Iran might have found itself in complete isolation -- especially against the background of the rising anti-Iranian hysteria in Azerbaijan in connection with the development of relations between Tehran and Yerevan. Perhaps the Iranian president tried to figure out what position Yerevan might assume in case an “Arab revolution” scenario was implemented in Iran.

Yerevan’s position is very important for Iran and the statement by the Iranian embassy makes it clear that Tehran will not tolerate foreign peacekeeping troops in the Karabakh conflict zone – whether Western, Russian or joint forces.

The statement by the embassy is unprecedented by its contents as it contains no traditional mention of “territorial integrity”, but instead it notes that the Karabakh conflict should be resolved on the basis of respect for the right to self-determination.

Such a change of direction in Iran’s attitude in favor of Armenia rather speaks about Tehran’s grave concern.

And what has changed in the regional situation that has led Iran to making a statement about the possible entry of peacekeeping forces?

It was said in the statement that “Iran, as the only country that shares a common border with the zone of the [Armenian-Azeri] conflict, expresses concern about any provocation in the region and possible escalation of tensions and will not allow such provocations to become an occasion for the emergence of outside forces in the region.”

Some Armenian analysts have also linked the development with the internal political processes in Armenia and the emerging dialogue between the ruling Republican Party and the opposition Armenian National Congress. The Lragir newspaper writes that the leaders of these two forces – President Serzh Sargsyan and top oppositionist Levon Ter-Petrosyan – have nearly identical positions as far as the currently Armenian-controlled territories surrounding the former Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region are concerned. The newspaper claims that the alliance of these two political factions may lead to forcing the Karabakh settlement, which will result in the introduction of an international peacekeeping force to the conflict zone.

NATO and U.S. forces are stationed virtually in all countries bordering on Iran – except for Armenia and Karabakh. And even the Caspian coast of Azerbaijan is protected by U.S. forces. If Western forces get to Karabakh, the circle around Iran will be completed.

Interestingly, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently met with the American leadership in Washington and the South Caucasian conflicts were a subject of discussion during that meeting. Iran may have received the information on the outcome of that Washington meeting and that was what made President Ahmadinejad dispatch a special envoy to Yerevan.

http://www.armenianow.com/commentary/analysis/29717/iran_armenia_geopolitics

[Artsakh]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Dispute of Facts: Iran is concerned over internal provocative statements

On May 14 the Iranian Embassy in Armenia released a statement saying that the official stand of the Islamic Republic of Iran on all foreign policy issues is expressed by the president, the foreign minister, and the spokesman of the foreign ministry. Any other viewpoint is to be considered personal opinion.


What’s behind this statement?

The past three weeks have been marked by considerable complication of the domestic political life in Iran, the most apparent reflection of which was the conflict between the president Mahmud Ahmadeinejad and the country’s religious leader Ali Khamenei. It is a highly rare, but symptomatic, conflict in the modern history of Iran.

Along the way of development the conflict acquired new shapes and stepped into the area of the Karabakh issue. On May 9 imam Seyyid Hasan Ameli stated in Ardebil that Iran aided Azerbaijan during the Karabakh war.

The openly provocative essence of this statement can hardly be doubted even if for its timing only – the statement was made at a time of split among the Iranian elite.

It is beyond doubt that were it not for Iran’s balanced policy in the region the Armenian statehood would have had to face incomparably more severe problems.

Iran categorically opposed Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s efforts to declare jihad to Armenians for the whole of Muslim world and give religious coloring to the Karabakh war. It was in that most complicated period of the Armenian history that the 42-km section of the shared border became Armenia’s only stable exit to the outer world. The 400-km highway connecting blockaded Yerevan with Iran was called “the Road of Life”.

The construction of a bridge on the border river Arax played a huge role in securing a stable exit to the world for otherwise isolated Armenia. The construction was launched in 1994 – in the final stage of the Karabakh war.

The first Iran-Armenia electricity transmission line, put into operation in 1995, was of no small account either. It helped the Armenian energy system to overcome the state of paralysis and full isolation. It should be stressed that the line had been built before the launch of the second energy block of Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor (shut down in February-March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake) in November of the same year.

Many such examples can be brought testifying to the fact that Teheran led a balanced policy in the period of the Karabakh war, and it surely was not supporting Azerbaijan.

Nonetheless, speaking on May 9 Seyyid Hasan Ameli declared the opposite.

“We had to either interfere in the war against the Armenian aggression which would mean opening the second front in Iran and which would eventually turn into a war with Russia, or turn a blind eye to Armenian executioners killing our Muslim brothers and lose our Islamic character,” stated the representative of Iran’s religious leader.

It was in this connection that the Iranian Embassy in Yerevan released its statement.

“… Iran’s foreign policy on all the regional conflicts supports mediation efforts to invite the sides to start dialogue, settle the conflicts and establish peace and stability in the region, and the steps taken toward the settlements of internal conflicts in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iraq are evidence to this. Iran believes that the settlement of the conflict between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan must be based on dialogue, non-use of force and self-determination to establish lasting peace. And since the Islamic Republic of Iran is the only country bordering on the conflict area, it is concerned by any effort to cause tensions in this region and will not allow these provocations to lead to the presence of foreign forces in the region,” reads the statement.

Nagorno Karabakh in this statement is not mentioned as the conflict entity, but as a subject of a bilateral dispute, nonetheless it is important that the conflict settlement is viewed from the perspective of nations’ right to self-determination, and that nothing is said about the territorial integrity of states.

http://www.armenianow.com/news/29700/iran_armenia_karabakh_war

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

They might well arrive that way, but (after what they experience when here, and if they have the same inflated sense of collective Iranian superiority and thin skin that Persepolis had) they will probably leave like Persepolis.

He didn't leave Jingles....he got booted out. I don't think he was planning on leaving anytime soon since his technic was working very well in creating tension between Iranians and Armenians.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Most Iranis (especially Persians) .... they are courteous and hospitable people and have no hostility towards Armenians whatsoever.

They might well arrive that way, but (after what they experience when here, and if they have the same inflated sense of collective Iranian superiority and thin skin that Persepolis had) they will probably leave like Persepolis.

[Tigranakert]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

You guys are letting an Azeri or a Turkish Irani give you the perception of who Persians are.

You guys should also be aware that with the growing relations between Armenia/Iran our enemies are going out of their way to spoil that relationship.

Most Iranis (especially Persians) will not come to an Armenian site and spread misinformation the way you have witnessed here; they are courteous and hospitable people and have no hostility towards Armenians whatsoever. Crimes like the one mentioned above can happen in any country and has nothing to do with Iranian culture or ways of life. There are nut jobs in every country, kids getting out of hand in every culture, misguided brainwashed numbnuts in every corner of the globe.

Most Iranis consider Armenians their brothers (beyond good friends), and so do many Armenians, not only Persian Armenians. We are culturally close and we relate to each other when we talk about word affairs. We hold many similar values and beliefs in regards to family and friends.

Iranians are in big trouble right now and we Armenians should help them as much as we can, when we can. Our government is already doing their part while trying not to get in trouble with the West.

Indeed, and that's why people like Persepolis do not deserve a place on this forum, flooding it with anti-Armenian propaganda and lies.