Iranian-Armenian relations

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

The latest Iranian offensive on PJAK in Iraqi Kurdistan has them fleeing across all borders for their lives, including into Armenia as it appears. Mos the wording of the title in the article you posted from Tehran is screwed up, it come out sounding like Armenia is training PJAKs which is not true. Azeri Media is already having a field day with this. If anything it was Armenia or Artsakh gov that tipped the Iranians.

Anyway it appears what Iran has just done to PJAK in last few months what Turkey hasn't been able to accomplish in 30 years even with their bombing campagns.

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ARM Defense Minister Received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iran to Armenia.



2011-08-19
On August 19, ARM Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of Armenia Seyed Ali Saghaeyan.

During the meeting the Ambassador presented the new appointed Iranian military attaché to Armenia colonel Hamidreza Mirza. Congratulating for the new appointment Seyran Ohanyan expressed hope that it will be a new impulse for the further development of Armenian-Iranian bilateral cooperation in the defense sector. At the same time ARM Defense Minister thanked the predecessor of the current military attaché Ahmad Reza Allahdadi for the contribution on his part during his tenure.

During the meeting the parties have also talked about issues concerning the regional security.

http://www.mil.am/1313770131

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations


Iran's covert war with Israel in Caspian

by Staff Writers
Baku, Azerbaijan (UPI) Aug 17, 2011


A senior Iranian general has warned zerbaijan about getting too close to Israel, underlining fears in Tehran that the xxxish state could use Iran's northern neighbor to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear program.

Israel has been quietly building intelligence and military links with oil rich Azerbaijan, a largely secular Muslim state, since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago.

The Israelis sell significant amounts of weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles to the government in Baku, on the Caspian Sea, as its intelligence services dig in along the border with Iran.

That gives Israel a forward operating base to monitor Iran, particularly its contentious nuclear program, which Jerusalem views as a major existential threat.

Over the last two years, tensions have escalated as Azerbaijan has become part of the shadowy intelligence war between Iran and Israel. It has become even more important to Israel since its May 2010 rift with former ally Turkey, which also borders Iran.

Even so, the unusually aggressive outburst by Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of Iran's armed forces Joint Staff Command, Aug. 9 struck a particularly jarring note and brought into sharp focus a little-known aspect of Israel's deepening intelligence war with Iran.

It also reflected Tehran's growing alarm at Israel's penetration of Iran's northern neighbor.

In what was perceived as thinly veiled threat, Firouzabadi accused Baku of mistreating religious Shiites in southern Azerbaijan who lean toward the Islamic Republic and allowing "Zionists" access to Azerbaijani territory right on Iran's doorstep.

"If this policy continues, it will end in darkness and it will not be possible to suppress a revolt by the people of Aran," or Azerbaijan, the general declared in an interview with Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency.

Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have been under strain in recent years, largely through Iranian covert operations.

In 2007, Azerbaijan convicted 15 Iranians and Azeris for spying on Israeli, U.S. and British interests, including oil facilities, for Tehran and plotting to seize power.

In 2008, Azeri authorities, aided by Israel's Mossad spy agency, thwarted a plot involving operatives of Hezbollah, Iran's powerful Lebanese proxy, to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Baku.

That plot was intended to avenge the assassination of Hezbollah's iconic security chief, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus earlier that year. Tehran blamed Mossad for that killing.

Firouzabadi's statement jolted the Iranian leadership as much as it did the Azeri government. Senior Iranian figures publicly chastised the general and sought to distance Tehran from his remarks.

"It is important to note that the ongoing power struggle in Iran" between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the clerical establishment led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "has been having the unintended effect of creating more political space for the military leadership to assert its views," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor observed.

It said "the tense exchange between Tehran and Baku Â… underscores the growing conflict of interests between the two neighbors as Azerbaijan works on strengthening its relationship with the West."

Around 85 percent of the population of Azerbaijan, ringed by key regional players Iran, Turkey and Russia, is Shiite. That gives Tehran the opportunity to make sectarian mischief in the Caucasus and the energy-rich Caspian Basin.

However, Azerbaijan is overwhelmingly secular, except for the religious conservatives on its southern flank. The government of President Ilham Aliyev suspects Tehran is them to bolster its claims to Azerbaijan's Caspian energy reserves.

Iran fears Aliyev, backed by Israel and even the United States, could support a revolt by its Azeris, who comprise about one-quarter of the population.

So it supports Azerbaijan's regional rival, Armenia, in its deadlocked dispute with Baku over Nagorno-Karabakh, currently held by Armenia.

"Given that Azerbaijan's relations with Iran have long been fraught, the Azerbaijani government has not had any qualms in developing a strategic relationship with Israel," Stratfor noted.

Expanding that military and intelligence relationship to upgrade Azerbaijan's capabilities and develop a military industrial complex there is one of Tehran's greatest concerns.

Aliyev is looking toward Israel and NATO to help modernize its forces, despite a U.S. arms embargo in place since 1992.

Israel is Azerbaijan's fourth largest trading partner. The xxxish state has also been making inroads into the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. It's negotiating with Kazakhstan to upgrade its military.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Irans_covert_war_with_Israel_in_Caspian_999.html

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Iranian MFA: “There are no Kurdish groups in Armenia”
BY TIMES.AM AT 22 AUGUST, 2011, 12:34 PM

Information about Kurdish armed forces which as if hold trainings in Armenia is fake. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially denied information about trainings which as if are held by “Pejak” group, Panorama.am informs.

Head of Iranian MFA has announced on August 21 that no non-official source should be trusted. Remind that Iranian source informed that Kurdish armed group held trainings in Armenia.

Armenian experts consider it had a propaganda aim and it was difficult to believe that it was Iranian official attitude.

/Times.am/

http://times.am/2011/08/22/iranian-mfa-%E2%80%9Cwhere-are-no-kurdish-groups-in-armenia%E2%80%9D/

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

^^^good find ninetoyadome.

I have heard that from Iranian officials before not to trust unofficial sources.....Still bothers me why Tehran time and Mehr would publish such thing, and these are not small news agencies I would say.

[arakeretzig]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Iran's covert war with Israel in Caspian

damn juice. They are always ruining it for everybody

[Mos]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Recent meeting...

Armenia, Iran Call for Stronger Ties


Foreign Minister Nalbandian meets with Iran's President Ahmadinejad
TEHRAN (IRNA)—Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Armenia’s Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, who was visiting Iran, said Saturday that Armenia and Iran should strengthen ties.
During a meeting with Nalbandian, Ahmadinejad pointed to the available potentials for the enhancement of Iran-Armenia ties and said, “Trade with neighbors is always the best [form of] trade, which is beneficial both for the establishment and promotion of security, peace and friendship and to regional countries.”
Ahmadinejad also said that Tehran-Yerevan ties could be enhanced promptly as Iran considers no limits on its relations with Armenia.
Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi also met with his Armenian counterpart in Tehran.
Salehi described Iran’s ties with Armenia as “strategic,” stressing the need to continue negotiations on the expansion of bilateral relations.
He congratulated his counterpart on the 20th anniversary of the Armenia’s independence and described having good relations with neighbors as one of Tehran’s foreign policy priorities.
Salehi urged the continuation of negotiations with Armenia over mutual issues and regional developments and expressed Iran’s readiness to cooperate with the Armenian government in the transportation and energy sectors as well as in the fields of politics and culture.
Nalbandian, for his part, voiced satisfaction with Tehran-Yerevan relations and formally invited the Iranian foreign minister to visit Armenia.
The Armenian foreign minister also stressed the role of Iran in establishing stability and security in Central Asia and discussed the latest developments in the Caucasus, including the negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Iran and Armenia have taken major strides toward promoting mutual relations in the past few years.
The bilateral trade volume between the two states stands at nearly $270 million, according to the Armenian foreign minister.
The ministers also discussed the work of the Armenian -Iranian intergovernmental commission which has an important role in elaborating and implementing of economic cooperation and joint projects.

[Mos]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

What people think of this? Just for show???

Iranian minister wants more military cooperation with Azerbaijan
Fri 16 September 2011 10:20 GMT | 6:20 Local Time
Text size:

Ahmad Vahidi
Azerbaijan and Iran should develop military cooperation, Iranian Defence Minister Gen Ahmad Vahidi has said during a visit to Ardabil Province.
Security and stability on the border between the two countries depends on the will of the Azerbaijani and Iranian leaderships to strengthen bilateral relations, Vahidi said.

During his visit to Ardabil Province, which borders on the Azerbaijan Republic, the defence minister praised the level of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran in the military field and underlined the importance of expanding military cooperation between Baku and Tehran, Trend reported, quoting the semi-official Fars news agency.
Azerbaijan and Iran have great potential to develop relations in various fields, including the cultural, religious and historical spheres, the general said.
On 14 September, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is also touring Ardabil Province, said that nothing could hinder the progress of close relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, Fars said.
In a speech to a large crowd in the city of Parsabad on the Iranian-Azerbaijani border, the Iranian president said that Tehran was interested in developing relations with Azerbaijan in the border regions and expanding joint activities at border checkpoints.
The positive remarks on relations with Azerbaijan come as protests gather pace against the Iranian government's failure to prevent Lake Urmia drying up. The salt lake, which straddles the Iranian provinces of West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan, has lost more than half its surface area.
Many ethnic Azerbaijanis both within Iran and beyond its borders fear the Iranian government is deliberately harming the lake.
At least 60 protesters were arrested at a rally in the town of Urmia on 3 September, Fars news agency said.
The Association for the Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP) said on 14 September that more activists had been detained after distributing leaflets urging people to take part in a protest in Ardabil on 19 September, Radio Liberty's Iranian service, Radio Farda reported.
News.Az

http://news.az/articles/iran/44597

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

What people think of this? Just for show???



http://news.az/articles/iran/44597

Lake Urmia is not just drying up but turning blood red due to some algae (Armenian curse?)....poetic justice to the Turkic Azeris.

As far as military cooperation consider the source of your news Mos.....there is no military cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan other than some border control that Iran wants to increase.

[Mos]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Lake Urmia is not just drying up but turning blood red due to some algae (Armenian curse?)....poetic justice to the Turkic Azeris.

As far as military cooperation consider the source of your news Mos.....there is no military cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan other than some border control that Iran wants to increase.

Well, the original source was "Radio Liberty's Iranian service, Radio Farda" but of course it's hard to imagine meaningful military cooperation between Az. and Iran, given Az. actively cooperates with Iran's enemies and supports actions against Iran - that is why I am surprised when I hear such things...

[Eddo211]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Well, the original source was "Radio Liberty's Iranian service, Radio Farda" but of course it's hard to imagine meaningful military cooperation between Az. and Iran, given Az. actively cooperates with Iran's enemies and supports actions against Iran - that is why I am surprised when I hear such things...

Yea I don't doubt the Iranian general saying that while visiting that area.....he is giving lip service really, they have to be able to control them after all....things get out of hand in northern Iran with massive demonstrations. Just lately the Lake Urmia demonstrations were highjaked by the Turkic Azeris turning it into a Azerbaijan demonstration (seperatists) throwing Graywolf signs.