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RUSSIA AND IRAN - UNEASY NEIGHBORS
by James Brooke
Tne Moscow News
http://themoscownews.com/russiawatch/20120123/189392896.html
Jan 24 2012
Russia
Countries without natural borders are like amoebas. Over centuries,
they expand and contract, expand and contract.
As the Western world wonders why Russia has such a nuanced policy
toward Iran's nuclear program, it is important to skip back over four
centuries of history.
Under Ivan the Terrible, Russia defeated the Tatars and started to
expand east to Siberia and south to the Caspian Sea. There, it first
encountered Persia, forerunner to modern Iran. For the next century,
wary coexistence ensued between the two empires.
In 1722, Russia expanded south again, embarking on the first of four
successful wars against Persia. Steadily, Russia gobbled up chunks of
Persia's Central Asian Empire. With the 1828 Treaty of Turkemnchay,
the Caspian Sea became a Russian lake.
One author of that treaty was Russia's new ambassador to Persia,
Alexander Griboyedov, a witty and charming poet and playwright.
© RIA Novosti. / Valeriy Shustov
Alexander Griboyedov's statue in MoscowBut Persian resentment of the
treaty boiled over when an Armenian eunuch escaped from the Shah's
harem and two Armenian girls escaped from the harem of his son-in-law.
Under terms of the new treaty, Armenians were allowed safe passage
from Persia to Russiancontrolled Armenia. Ambassador Griboyedov stood
on principle, and protected his Armenian charges.
A mob of rioting Persians overwhelmed the Russian Embassy's Cossack
guards and slaughtered everyone inside. When Griboyedov's 16-year-old
bride, Nino, learned of her husband's fate, she became so distraught
that she miscarried, and lost their baby. For the rest of her life,
she refused all suitors. Today, a larger than life Griboyedov statue
in Moscow is a popular meeting point for young people. In St.
Petersburg, Griboyedov Canal is a picturesque waterway in the heart
of the city.
The embassy slaughter may live on in Russian's popular image of Iran.
But it did not deter the Kremlin, which retained control of Northern
Iran through 1946.
In 1907, with the military rise of Germany, Russia and Britain signed
the Anglo-Russian Convention. Under this treaty, Persia was divided up
between a northern Russian zone, a central neutral zone governed by a
Shah, and a southern British zone. This allowed Britain to develop oil
deposits in southern Iran and to build a refinery in Abadan. Founded
in 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company grew into what is known today
as BP.
In 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union conducted a joint, threeweek
military campaign and deposed the pro-German Shah, installing his
son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. For the next five years, the two foreign
nations oversaw what had now come to be called Iran.
In early 1946, the British pulled out, but the Red Army stayed in
Northern Iran well beyond an exit deadline stipulated in the Teheran
Conference of 1943. Stalin decided to extend control over northern Iran
by setting up two puppet Soviet republics and signing an oil treaty
with Teheran that gave the Soviet Union ownership of 51 percent of
northern Iran's oil deposits. But soon after Red Army troops withdrew
from northern Iran, the puppet republics collapsed. In late 1947,
Iran's parliament refused to ratify the oil agreement.
Six decades of oil earnings and a swelling young population have
given Iran a powerful military machine. Now, it may be building a
nuclear bomb.
By contrast, in the Caspian, post-Soviet Moscow's control has receded
to about 20 percent of the 7,000 km shoreline. And half of the
Russia portion is Dagestan, where currently the hottest insurgency
is underway in Russia's Islamic south. Moscow fears Iran reaching
across the Caspian to destabilize southern Russia.
Last year's Arab Spring ended a series of Soviet legacy relationships.
Russian influence in the Mediterranean receded to a toehold in
Tarsus, a naval base on Syria's coast - but a large question mark
hangs over the future of Syria. And the Russian public has little
taste in overseas military entanglement, whether Syria or Iran.
The Kremlin keeps its ear close to the ground through an extensive
public opinion polling system. Today, as the Russian amoeba retracts,
there is no indication that the nation's leaders want to tangle
with Teheran.
James Brooke (Twitter: @VOA_Moscow) is the Moscow bureau chief for
Voice of America. To view all "Russia Watch" posts, go to voanews.com.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own.
From: Baghdasarian
by James Brooke
Tne Moscow News
http://themoscownews.com/russiawatch/20120123/189392896.html
Jan 24 2012
Russia
Countries without natural borders are like amoebas. Over centuries,
they expand and contract, expand and contract.
As the Western world wonders why Russia has such a nuanced policy
toward Iran's nuclear program, it is important to skip back over four
centuries of history.
Under Ivan the Terrible, Russia defeated the Tatars and started to
expand east to Siberia and south to the Caspian Sea. There, it first
encountered Persia, forerunner to modern Iran. For the next century,
wary coexistence ensued between the two empires.
In 1722, Russia expanded south again, embarking on the first of four
successful wars against Persia. Steadily, Russia gobbled up chunks of
Persia's Central Asian Empire. With the 1828 Treaty of Turkemnchay,
the Caspian Sea became a Russian lake.
One author of that treaty was Russia's new ambassador to Persia,
Alexander Griboyedov, a witty and charming poet and playwright.
© RIA Novosti. / Valeriy Shustov
Alexander Griboyedov's statue in MoscowBut Persian resentment of the
treaty boiled over when an Armenian eunuch escaped from the Shah's
harem and two Armenian girls escaped from the harem of his son-in-law.
Under terms of the new treaty, Armenians were allowed safe passage
from Persia to Russiancontrolled Armenia. Ambassador Griboyedov stood
on principle, and protected his Armenian charges.
A mob of rioting Persians overwhelmed the Russian Embassy's Cossack
guards and slaughtered everyone inside. When Griboyedov's 16-year-old
bride, Nino, learned of her husband's fate, she became so distraught
that she miscarried, and lost their baby. For the rest of her life,
she refused all suitors. Today, a larger than life Griboyedov statue
in Moscow is a popular meeting point for young people. In St.
Petersburg, Griboyedov Canal is a picturesque waterway in the heart
of the city.
The embassy slaughter may live on in Russian's popular image of Iran.
But it did not deter the Kremlin, which retained control of Northern
Iran through 1946.
In 1907, with the military rise of Germany, Russia and Britain signed
the Anglo-Russian Convention. Under this treaty, Persia was divided up
between a northern Russian zone, a central neutral zone governed by a
Shah, and a southern British zone. This allowed Britain to develop oil
deposits in southern Iran and to build a refinery in Abadan. Founded
in 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company grew into what is known today
as BP.
In 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union conducted a joint, threeweek
military campaign and deposed the pro-German Shah, installing his
son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. For the next five years, the two foreign
nations oversaw what had now come to be called Iran.
In early 1946, the British pulled out, but the Red Army stayed in
Northern Iran well beyond an exit deadline stipulated in the Teheran
Conference of 1943. Stalin decided to extend control over northern Iran
by setting up two puppet Soviet republics and signing an oil treaty
with Teheran that gave the Soviet Union ownership of 51 percent of
northern Iran's oil deposits. But soon after Red Army troops withdrew
from northern Iran, the puppet republics collapsed. In late 1947,
Iran's parliament refused to ratify the oil agreement.
Six decades of oil earnings and a swelling young population have
given Iran a powerful military machine. Now, it may be building a
nuclear bomb.
By contrast, in the Caspian, post-Soviet Moscow's control has receded
to about 20 percent of the 7,000 km shoreline. And half of the
Russia portion is Dagestan, where currently the hottest insurgency
is underway in Russia's Islamic south. Moscow fears Iran reaching
across the Caspian to destabilize southern Russia.
Last year's Arab Spring ended a series of Soviet legacy relationships.
Russian influence in the Mediterranean receded to a toehold in
Tarsus, a naval base on Syria's coast - but a large question mark
hangs over the future of Syria. And the Russian public has little
taste in overseas military entanglement, whether Syria or Iran.
The Kremlin keeps its ear close to the ground through an extensive
public opinion polling system. Today, as the Russian amoeba retracts,
there is no indication that the nation's leaders want to tangle
with Teheran.
James Brooke (Twitter: @VOA_Moscow) is the Moscow bureau chief for
Voice of America. To view all "Russia Watch" posts, go to voanews.com.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own.
From: Baghdasarian