They Love Iran

Okay, love might be too strong. But Armenia and Iran are definitely good friends.

Triggered by this recent story:

A visiting high-ranking Iranian official thanked Armenia on Tuesday for supporting his country in the international arena just days after Yerevan refused to join Western powers in condemning Tehran’s poor human rights record.

Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s office quoted Iran’s Agriculture Minister Mohammad Reza Iskanderi as praising the “balanced position on Iran which Armenia takes in international structures.” No further details were reported.

The remarks, made during Iskanderi’s talks with Markarian, were apparently prompted by the Armenian vote against a Western-backed resolution that was adopted by the UN General Assembly last Wednesday. It decried continuing human rights abuses in Iran, saying that persecution, torture and even execution of individuals opposed to the ruling regime in Tehran remain widespread.

Neighboring Azerbaijan was also among 47 states that voted against the resolution co-sponsored by the United States, Canada and the European Union....

Armenian leaders have similarly avoided any criticism of Tehran’s controversial nuclear program that has drawn serious concern from the West.

So what's this all about?

Well, several things.

One, just look at a map. Armenia is a landlocked country with four neighbors. To the east is hostile Azerbaijan... border closed. To the west is unfriendly Turkey... border closed. To the north is Georgia, which isn't hostile but isn't overflowing with warmth either; the Georgians have their own problems, and charge Armenia heavily for access to the sea. So, it makes simple geographical sense to stay on good terms with Iran. The last thing they need is another closed border.

Two, energy. Armenia has none... no oil, no gas, no coal. Courtesy of Brezhnev's USSR, they have a nuclear power plant that's sitting on top of a major earthquake fault line. They have that and some hydropower and that's all. Everything else has to be imported.

Armenia sits next to Azerbaijan, one of the most energy-rich countries in the world, but -- whoops -- border closed, no relations, no trade. So they have to import natural gas and oil from Russia, through Georgia. But since Russia and Georgia don't get along so well, this is not exactly a reliable source.

So they're looking south to Iran for energy. A natural gas pipeline is about 3/4 completed -- it's expected to reach Yerevan this winter -- and there are plans for a joint hydroelectric dam on the Araxes river, which runs betweeen the two countries.

Three, there's a large Armenian minority in Iran. And -- key point here -- the Armenian-Iranians are probably the most privileged of all Iran's minorities. They're allowed to exercise their faith. They're not much discriminated against. They have a couple of representatives in the Majlis, the Iranian Parliament. They're even allowed certain privileges forbidden to the Muslim minority... for instance, they can distill alcohol and own liquor stores. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them have done very well. They're more or less a model minority.

This suits the Iranians very well; whenever they're criticized for their horrible human rights record, they can point to the Armenians. See, a hundred thousand Christians, peaceful and prosperous! Oppressive fanatics and bigots? Pshaw! -- And of course, the Armenians of Armenia have a strong interest in making sure things stay sweet for the Armenians of Iran. Because it wasn't always so. Back in the 1980s, when the Islamic Revolution was still fresh, things were a lot rougher for Iran's Armenians. The peaceful coexistence is relatively recent.

Fourth and finally, the two countries' strategic interests coincide. Armenia wants to stay friends with Russia; so does Iran. Armenia is in a state of frozen conflict with Azerbaijan; Iran is coolly neutral towards Azerbaijan. Armenia is worried about Turkey; Iran is Turkey's ancient regional rival.

So, there are plenty of reasons for Armenia to stay on good terms with Teheran.

Having said that, it's rather striking just how warm the diplomatic relations are. Iran's not a broadly popular country, but they can pretty much always count on Armenia's support, in the UN and elsewhere.

Comments

[Lorraine]

Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Doug. Heating oil and gas make for strange bedfellows, indeed. How do the Armenian *people* feel about Americans in general, i.e., not the administration?

[Bernard Guerrero]

The Iranian attitude towards Azerbaijan has always perplexed me. From the outside, I'd expect the ethnic and historical ties (up to and including pre-Revolutionary Iran's Cold War confrontation with the USSR over their own Azerbaijan territory) would have produced warmer feelings. They just trying to keep the Russkies sweet by not messing with ex-Soviet territory, or is there something else?

[Doug M.]

Bernard: Yep, there's something else.

The missing piece? The large Azeri minority in Iran. Northwest Iran is largely Azeri. If the borders were drawn along ethnic lines, about 15-20% of Iran would be part of Azerbaijan.

It's a lot like the Turk/Kurd thing, though not quite so vicious -- because the Azeris don't have as much of a national consciousness as the Kurds. But they do have some grudges against Iranian dominance. (And, from Teheran's POV, the Iranian Azeris were a little too comfortable with Soviet occupation 1941-6.)

Ergo, Iran views Azerbaijan askance -- rather as Turkey might view an independent Kurdistan.

Now, as long as Azerbaijan is weak, corrupt, autocratic, and distracted by the Karabakh conflict, it won't be attractive to Iranian Azeris. So Teheran has a vested interest in seeing that Azerbaijan remains weak, corrupt, etc.

This has manifested as direct interference at least once -- in 1993, when Iran quietly supported a separatist movement in southern Azerbaijan. The movement was not successful, but it came at a particularly difficult time (in the middle of the Karabakh war) and the Azeris haven't forgotten.

Also, as a secondary matter, the two countries are rivals in the energy field. The new pipeline from Baku to the Mediterranean is a cut direct; Iran has been wanting such a pipeline since the 1950s.

So, relations between them range from "icy cold, openly hostile" to "coolly correct". They're never what you'd call warm, and won't be for a long time.

(Although, oddly enough, Azerbaijan joined Armenia in voting against the resolution condemning Iran. But that's because Azerbaijan's human rights record is very similar to Iran's.)

Doug M.

[Joseph Eros]

Have you met many (or any) Iranians in Armenia yourself? When I took a minibus from Tbilisi to Yerevan, one of the passengers was an Iranian who spoke good English. He said he was going to be selling nuts--pecans, if memory serves.

Are there any plans in progress to improve the general transportation links between Armenia and Iran? From the maps I've seen, it looks like it would be really hard to get much cargo from Iran to the parts of Armenia where just about everybody lives.

Fascinating stuff on the Armenians in Iran.

[Michel]

Are the Armenian minority in Iran better-treated than the Kurdish and Azeri minorities? (I'd take for granted that they are better treated than the Arab and Jewish ones)

Vis-a-vis religious rights, any exemption to harsh Islamic law would be a positive (the other minorities, being Muslim, won't benefit, and I suppose the Jewish minority did not get the same exemptions), but as regards to political representation, how does the representation of Azeris compare to Armenians, vis-a-vis their relative share of the population?

[Randy McDonald]

From what I know, the Azeris are individually integrated into the Iranian power structure but aren't recognized as a group by the Iranian state. "Everything to the Azeris as individuals; nothing to Azeris as a group."

[John Montague]

More, please on this fascinating Azeris in Iran thing. How has Iran's policy on Nagorno-Karabagh evolved beyond their declared 'neutrality' ? I wonder how they've reacted to the recent constitutional referendum there.

There's a good article by Olivier Roy here: http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/regional/royoniran.html but it's out of date.

I'd have thought Turkey and Iran would be cosying up together in eagerness to limit the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan. Any sign of the effects of such a rapprochement on Armenia ?