Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

BAKU: Iran again meddling in Azerbaijan's internal affairs

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • BAKU: Iran again meddling in Azerbaijan's internal affairs

    Ekho, Azerbaijan
    Jan 8 2011


    Iran again meddling in Azerbaijan's internal affairs


    Excerpt from B. Safarov and N. Aliyev's report
    [translated from Russian]

    Comments made by representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran
    following the Azerbaijani president's New Year address can be assessed
    as an open interference by the Islamic Republic of Iran in
    Azerbaijan's internal affairs.

    "From the legal point of view, President Ilham Aliyev's New Year
    speech is absolutely correct. The address is in line with the
    celebration of New Year and the Day of Solidarity of Azerbaijanis of
    the World," lawyer Elcin Qambarov told Ekho commenting on statements
    by a number of Iranian officials and publications in some Iranian
    media.

    The expert noted that ethnic Azerbaijanis live in different parts of
    the world. "Azerbaijan is an independent state, and all Azerbaijanis
    of the world regard our country as their motherland," Qambarov
    stressed.

    It must be noted that the Iranian news agency Mehr reported that Ilham
    Aliyev's New Year address, in which he, as the leader of all
    Azerbaijanis of the world, congratulated the whole Azerbaijani people
    on New Year and the Day of Solidarity of Azerbaijanis of the World,
    had caused the outrage of the head of the Iranian parliamentary
    commission for foreign relations and security, Ala'eddin Borujerdi.
    Borujerdi said that Ilham Aliyev could not be the leader of ethnic
    Azerbaijanis in Iran since they considered heads of the Iranian state
    as their leaders.

    "Ilham Aliyev is the president of Azerbaijan, and this does not give
    him the right to be the leader of all Azerbaijanis," he said.

    For its part, the Iranian website presstv.ir accused the Azerbaijani
    leadership of pursuing an anti-Islamic policy and of having relations
    with Tel-Aviv. The website recalled a recent protest by Muslim
    believers staged outside the [Azerbaijani] Education Ministry over a
    ban on wearing hijab at school. Iranian experts believe that this ban
    is a concession made by the country's government to the West aimed at
    the future accession to the European Union, an organization which has
    not a single Muslim European country represented in it, either
    Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Turkey. At the same time,
    Presstv.ir noted that over 24 per cent of Iran's population were
    ethnic Azerbaijanis and that "they have never looked for a foreign
    politician to become their leader".

    Presstv.ir also advised that the Azerbaijani leadership should refrain
    from statements that could "incite discord among different ethnic
    groups in neighbouring countries".

    [Passage omitted: about statements made by the leader of the
    Azerbaijani Islamic Party, Movsum Samadov, calling for the overthrow
    of the Ilham Aliyev government that was posted on YouTube]

    "Ilham Aliyev is a leader who commands the respect of all Azerbaijanis
    of the world, including our compatriots in Iran and Turkey. They are
    all proud that there exists a leader like Ilham Aliyev in the Muslim
    world," the head of the Centre for Political Innovations and
    Technologies, Mubariz Ahmadoglu, believes. "I would advise that
    Iranian officials, including the head of the Iranian parliamentary
    commission for foreign relations and security, Ala'eddin Borujerdi,
    carry out a survey among our compatriots in Iran to find out about the
    popularity of their leaders and of Ilham Aliyev. Even if the
    Azerbaijani president's popularity rating does not exceed the rating
    of Iranian leaders, then at least votes will be divided equally.
    Tehran is concerned that Aliyev has influence over Iranians as a
    whole, including ethnic Persians," Ahmadoglu said.

    He said that after Ilham Aliyev was elected Azerbaijani president,
    Shi'is in Turkey took a radical approach to the Karabakh issue. "They
    immediately react to opportunistic statements by some forces in Turkey
    and support the positions of Azerbaijan led by Ilham Aliyev. This also
    worries Azerbaijan's enemies," he said.

    [Passage omitted: more on Samadov's statement]




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X