Iranian-Armenian relations

[Joseph]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Good post, the attitude of Iran towards the Caucasus is the same as Russia. Always remaining vague, they say one thing against us and another thing to the Azeris. The sad truth is everybody just wants something from Armenia and they are willing to say whatever is necessary.

I agree. I would rather have a vague, publicly wavering Iran that in reality has good economic relations with Armenia than have them be a demonstrative ally that does nothing.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Iranian Vice President Calls for $1 Billion Increase in Trade with Armenia
TEHRAN (ARKA)–Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rakhimi on Monday called for a massive increase in trade, to the tune of $1 billion, between his country and Armenia during talks with visiting Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
According to the Armenian Government’s press office, Rakhimi said he wants trade with Armenia to increase to $1 billion. “There is no limit to boosting the relations between the two countries and Iran is ready to promote cooperation in areas of politics, medicine and health, commerce and economy,” the Iranian statesman said.
The Iranian vice-president particularly underscored the need to speed-up the construction of an Iran-Armenia railway, saying that the implementation of the railway agreements would be “a big step” towards the development of the two states, the Iranian IRNA news agency reported.
Iran and Armenia are currently implementing four joint projects: the construction of an energy pipeline, a railway linking the two countries, two hydraulic power plants on their border, and a high-voltage electricity transmission line to allow energy swaps.
Sargsyan, for his part, underlined the need to cooperate in the fields of education, health and cattle-breeding and construction in the southern Armenian province of Syunik.
The Armenian premier arrived in Tehran on Monday at the head of a delegation of government officials for a series of talks on economic cooperation.
According to Armenian government data, trade between the two countries from January-August 2010 increased by 36.8% year-on-year to $137 million.
In October, Armenia and Iran began construction of a third power transmission line which will increase the power exchange capacity between the two countries to 1,000 megawatts from the current level of 350-400 megawatts. Armenia exports electricity to Iran in return for the natural gas supplies.

http://asbarez.com/87598/iranian-vice-president-calls-for-1-billion-increase-in-trade-with-armenia/

[arakeretzig]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Iran understands well how benefiting a good relation to Armenia is. As long as they don't export their crazy islamic stuff in the south caucus, I'd take Iran over Turkey anyday.

[Mos]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

another good step by our iranian partners

Iran to Supply Armenia with Gasoline, Diesel Oil

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian oil official announced that the country is due to export 1.5 million liters of gasoline and diesel oil to Armenia each day.


"Based on the agreement, Iran will export 750,000 liters of gasoline and 750,000 liters of diesel oil to Yerevan on daily basis," Iranian Deputy Oil Minister and Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Alireza Zeiqami stated.

Late in January, Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazzemi announced that Iran and Armenia plan to construct a new oil pipeline to increase energy supply to the Caucasian state.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with visiting Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisian here in Tehran, Mir-Kazzemi said that the pipeline will begin from Iran's Northwestern city of Tabriz and stretch toward the Armenian border.

The minister added that the pipeline can help Armenia meet parts of its needs for oil products from the Islamic Republic.

He added that the two sides will finalize the volume and the value of the exports of oil products during a meeting in the near future.

By 2014, the 365 kilometer, 8 inch pipeline will transfer oil products from Tabriz to Yerevan.

Iran and Armenia have also expanded cooperation in power and gas swap in recent years.

Iran mainly exports natural gas to Armenia and imports power supplies from the Caucasian state through two transfer lines with a total power transfer capacity of 220kw/ph at present.

[Federate]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Good, we are diversifying our imports. In the long run though, we should be focusing on renewable energy.

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Eight inch diameter pipe....that is too small. Freaking Russians man, I knew they didn't want us to have a larger pipe but this?
Good think our Iranian friends are still going through with it.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Its good, our increasing relationship with Iran is driving a wedge between Iran and azerbaijan. The azeris are getting pissed off and now they are even producing anti-Iranian reports on TV.

Azerbaijan: Iran Taking a Beating in Baku Press
February 14, 2011 - 11:51am, by Shahin Abbasov
Azerbaijan Iran
As part of an effort to contain radical Islam, officials in Azerbaijan are carrying out an anti-Iran campaign on state-controlled news outlets. The media blitz follows the recent arrest of leading members of the banned Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, a group believed to be sympathetic to Iran.

In the weeks following the January 7 Islamic Party arrests, Azerbaijan’s national television channels aired prime-time news reports accusing Iran of interfering in Azerbaijan’s domestic affairs, supporting fundamentalists and fostering close ties with Baku’s longtime foe, Armenia. Interviews with “ordinary people” who criticized Tehran’s allegedly “negative” behavior toward Azerbaijan were also prominently featured.

Amid an increasingly bitter debate within Azerbaijan about the role of Islam, such references to alleged meddling by the Islamic Republic easily excite sensitivities. TV station managers have not commented on the reasons for the denunciations of Iran. But one national TV station news editor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told EurasiaNet.org that an order to air the reports came from President Ilham Aliyev’s administration.

“We even received examples of ‘destructive Iranian activity,’ on which we should focus -- the support of Islamic fundamentalists and close ties with Armenia,” he said.

Ali Hasanov, head of the administration’s Public Policy Department, has refused to comment to journalists on the anti-Iran PR campaign. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson similarly declined to speak to EurasiaNet.org.

No explicit reason has been given for the campaign – MPs cite vicious Iranian comments about Azerbaijan without substantiating their remarks – but Tehran’s alleged support of conservative Muslims in Azerbaijan has been a recurring theme in the campaign. Such references could hearken back to the Islamic Party, a group that was banned in 1995, and has since long been termed “pro-Iranian” by the Azerbaijani press.

Islamic Party leader Movsum Samadov was arrested amid widespread controversy about the Azerbaijani government’s refusal to allow women and girls to wear a hijab, the traditional Muslim head covering for females, in public schools. In a video message posted on his party’s website, Samadov called for the overthrow of President Aliyev’s government.

No official connection between the Islamic Party and Tehran has ever been verified, but many Azerbaijani analysts take it as a given. “There’s no doubt that Iran supports the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan in its harsh statements and actions against the government, and does it to violate political stability in Azerbaijan,” asserted Mubariz Ahmadoglu, the director of the Center of Political Innovations and Technologies, a pro-government research center in Baku.

Tehran has maintained an official silence on Samadov’s arrest and on the hijab controversy. However, a letter from Iranian Grand Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani that criticized the informal ban sparked anger among many Azerbaijanis. An appeal for Samadov’s release from prison has since been denied; the investigation into his case is ongoing.

MPs from pro-government parties have also sounded the alarm about Iran, but without mentioning the Islamic Party.

On February 1, one member of the tiny Ana Vatan (Motherland) Party called for Azerbaijanis to avoid traveling to Iran; Tehran’s abolition of visa requirements for Azerbaijanis “hides a lot of dangers and leads to the uncontrolled export of drugs to Azerbaijan,” media outlets quoted Zahid Oruj as saying.

Other MPs have tried to focus attention on Iran’s close relationship with Armenia. Tehran’s close ties to Yerevan, “allows the aggressor to continue its policy against Azerbaijan,” claimed Democratic Reforms Party leader Asim Mollazade. The recent announcement of plans to build an Iranian oil pipeline to Armenia has generally fallen under this same categorization.

Adding to the public message, Diaspora groups such as the Global Congress of Azerbaijanis and the International Center of the Diaspora, have picketed the Iranian Embassy in Baku, chanting slogans such as “A single Azerbaijan with Tabriz [the largest city in Iran’s ethnic Azeri province of East Azerbaijan -- ed] as its capital!” or, in reference to Armenia, “Iran is a friend of the enemy of Muslims!”

Surprisingly, these events took place against the background of a significant gas deal between Tehran and Baku. Under the deal, Azerbaijani exports to Iran are expected to rise to 1 billion cubic meters in 2011. One Baku-based political analyst asserts that there is no contradiction between the gas deal, announced on January 13, and the ongoing anti-Iran campaign. In Azerbaijan, business is business and politics is politics, he elaborated. “The gas supplies to Iran are mutually beneficial to both countries,” said Elhan Shahinoglu, director of the Atlas research center in Baku. “SOCAR [the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic] sells its spare gas to Iran for a market price, while Iran secures gas for its northern provinces, especially during winter.”

Iran, so far, has kept largely silent in response to the public criticism. On February 8, Iranian Ambassador Mammadbagir Bakhrami commented only that Iranian diplomatic initiatives were designed to “unite the two nations, not to divide them,” news outlets reported. Bakhrami announced plans for a meeting this spring between Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani and Azerbaijan’s senior leaders, but did not disclose topics for discussion, 1news.az reported.

Baku has not yet responded to Bakhrami’s customary invitation for President Aliyev to visit Tehran in late March to celebrate the Persian New Year of Novruz.

Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance reporter based in Baku and a board member of the Open Society Assistance Foundation-Azerbaijan.

[Federate]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Armenia Repatriates Iranian Convicts

Armenia -- The Nubarashen prison in Yerevan.
14.02.2011
Emil Danielyan

Over two dozen Iranian citizens serving prison sentences in Armenia have been sent back to Iran in what the Justice Ministry in Yerevan described on Monday as a gesture of goodwill.

Ministry spokeswoman Karine Kalantarian said the handover took place on Friday at the request of the Iranian government. She said the 24 convicts are to serve the rest of their sentences in Iran.

“More than 70 sentenced citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran were kept in Armenian penitentiary institutions until then,” Kalantarian added in a statement.

Many of them were apparently jailed on drug trafficking charges. Iran is believed to be the main source of drugs smuggled to Armenia.

The prisoner handover took place exactly one year after Armenian law-enforcement authorities reported their biggest-ever seizure of heroin which they said was smuggled by Iranian drug dealers through neighboring Turkey. One Russian and one Iranian nationals were arrested after police found seven kilograms of the Class A drug in their car.

Kalantarian said the Armenian and Iranian governments are now negotiating on and will soon sign an agreement on the repatriation of their nationals sentenced in each other’s country. The agreement will pave the way for the expulsion of the other Iranians remaining in Armenian prisons, she told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

No Armenian citizen is known to be imprisoned in the Islamic Republic at present.

According to the Justice Ministry, more than 200 foreigners are currently kept behind bars in Armenia. Kalantarian said Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasian would like to let them complete their jail terms in their respective home countries. She said the Justice Ministry is now trying to arrange their extradition through the Armenian Foreign Ministry and relevant foreign diplomatic missions.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/2309133.html

[Persopolis]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Information about the Genocide of Armenians: The Persian people 100% recognize the genocide of Armenians; Armenians are brothers with Iranians (both are Aryan). There are many Armenians in Iran (my best friend in Iran was Armenian and we 150 ancient churches in Iran and reserve a seat in our congress for Armenians). Armenian students in Iran regularly hold educational seminars on the genocide. Peace & Love to Armenians from Iran.

[Persopolis]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

The drug problem in Iran started after the war in Afghanistan - The Taliban used to kill smugglers (when they were ousted by the U.S. they started trafficking drugs through Iran to Europe). Sometimes, local farmers from Iran will get involved as transporters, but the Iranian government deals with drug traffickers very harshly.