TRUCKS OF DISCORD

Certain difficulties in the dialogue between Baku and Tehran continue to be one of the most widely discussed topics of the regional policy. Thanks to the contacts of officials from the both sides, it was possible to ease the tension in bilateral relations. However, the real expansion of Azerbaijani-Iranian cooperation requires much greater efforts. It is basically important therefore that Iran prevents any manifestations of disrespect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Who is to blame?

The new regional reality established as a result of Azerbaijan's victory in the 44-day war is also expressed in measures taken to clarify the Azerbaijani-Armenian interstate border. As part of this process, Azerbaijan established police posts on the sections of the Gorus-Gafan interstate road. Among other functions, they also check foreign vehicles passing through the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The relevance of these measures has become more noticeable amid the reports of regular passage through the Lachin corridor, the territory of Azerbaijan, of Iranian trucks trying to deliver unknown cargo to Khankendi and adjacent areas of Garabagh populated by Armenians. This area is temporarily under the responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers.

Baku has earlier expressed its dissatisfaction and even presented a note of protest due to the illegal actions of the Iranian side. However, Tehran chose to ignore Baku's reaction and Iranian vehicles continued to arrive in Khankendi and surrounding areas in violation of the Azerbaijani legislation. In response, Baku began to take measures to prevent illegal cargo transportation from Iran to Azerbaijan, including charging of taxes from Iranian drivers entering Azerbaijan on the sections of the Goris-Gafan road.

After that, Tehran began to discuss the problem with Azerbaijan, including through the meetings of the Iranian Ambassador to Baku, Seyid Abbas Mousavi, with the Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev and Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev. However, it was followed by the unofficial yet inadequate attacks against Azerbaijan by some Iranian mullahs, who did not hide their hostile attitude towards Azerbaijan.

Reasons for this relationship are well known and stem from both the dissatisfaction of certain circles of the Iranian political elite with the strengthening of the independent and secular Republic of Azerbaijan, demonstrating itself as the leader of the South Caucasus, and fears about the growth amid the national identity of millions of southern Azerbaijanis living in Iran.

Meanwhile, Baku has never did something to make Tehran consider Azerbaijan a catalyst for undermining the socio-political foundations of the Islamic Republic, in which well-known global centres of power have always been interested instead. After the recent election of the new President of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, Baku sent a serious message to Tehran. In his congratulatory letter, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev expressed his satisfaction with the state of bilateral relations, “which have expanded to the level of strategic cooperation”, and Azerbaijan's desire to strengthen cooperation with Iran as with a “friendly and fraternal country”. Baku also reacted positively to Iran’s intention to take part in the restoration of the liberated territories of Azerbaijan.

However, it is obvious that the full development of friendly relations cannot be based on unilateral aspirations. Azerbaijan expects from Iran a similar attitude towards itself as a friendly and fraternal country, also meaning that it will not accept any steps aimed at violating the interests of Baku, encroaching on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Indeed, Baku has only one wish: if Iran has proclaimed a course to maintain a balance in its relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia, then it should at least follow this course in practice. Baku no longer expects from Tehran a truly fair approach, which, during the almost 30-year Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands, should have been expressed in Iran's effective condemnation of the aggressive policy of Armenia. Azerbaijan did not expect such a principled position from its southern neighbour, although the both states are connected with ties of cultural and religious unity. For decades, declaring its support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Tehran at the same time only strengthened relations with the occupying Azerbaijani lands of Armenia. At the same time, while positioning itself as a strict guardian of Islamic values, a defender of the Muslim religion and its cultural heritage, Tehran did not, however, consider the destruction and desecration by the Armenian aggressors of numerous mosques and Islamic sanctuaries on the territory of occupied Garabagh. But now, when Azerbaijan put an end to the Armenian occupation, it has even more right to demand from all neighbours respect for its restored territorial integrity.

Iranian political circles often appeal to the fact that difficulties in relations between Baku and Tehran are provoked by the ‘third forces’. But what do the ‘third forces’ have to do with the trucks from Iran illegally passing to Garabagh, the territory of Azerbaijan, which currently hosts the Russian peacekeepers? May be they mean that we should blame the world imperialism and Zionism for the movement of Iranian vehicles into the camp of separatists still entrenched in Khankendi and adjacent areas?

What to do?

Certainly, the tension in bilateral relations does not meet the interests of either Azerbaijan or Iran. Despite all the difficulties and disagreements, both parties understand that they need to maintain and strengthen good-neighbourliness. Therefore, they held negotiations to soften the atmosphere of the Azerbaijani-Iranian dialogue.

Thus, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Sajadpour made a three-day visit to Azerbaijan. The main purpose of his visit was announced to be the participation in the conference related to relations between Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran. This is not surprising, because Sajadpour is also the head of the Centre for Political and International Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran.

By the way, the conference held in Baku is directly related with the upcoming trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran in Tehran. The corresponding agreement was reached during the talks between the foreign ministers of Turkey and Iran Mevlut Cavusoglu and Hossein Amir Abdollahian held in New York as part of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly. Sajadpour’s visit confirmed that cooperation in this trilateral format serves as a weighty argument in favour of the prospects for cooperation between Baku and Tehran.

During the visit, Mr. Sajadpour also visited the liberated city of Aghdam. He had an opportunity to clearly see the unprecedented vandalism committed by the Armenian invaders, who destroyed entire cities and villages, wiped out numerous monuments of the cultural and religious heritage of the Azerbaijani people.

Aide to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev described the essence of these talks with Iran as follows: “We confirmed good-neighbourly relations between our countries, and stressed the importance of cooperation in scientific researches.” Incidentally, immediately after the end of Mr. Sajadpour's visit, Iranian ambassador to Baku Seyid Abbas Mousavi made a number of important statements. In particular, he underlined that “private transport companies transporting illegal cargo to Garabagh have been warned to respect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.” In addition, he recalled the statements of the Iranian leadership confirming Garabagh as an integral part of Azerbaijan.

Another positive signal came from the UN General Assembly session, where Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian. The latter stated that Iran was interested in developing comprehensive relations with Azerbaijan.

However, it is clear that the implementation of Iranian interests will depend on Tehran's practical consideration of Azerbaijani interests. Therefore, with a single statement about private transport companies as a number-one patsy and Garabagh’s belonging to Azerbaijan, Iran will not be able to prevent misunderstandings with Baku in the future. Because it would be better if Iran showed not only verbal, but also practical respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

For the full development of friendly and good-neighbourly relations with Azerbaijan, Iran should recognise the new regional realities established after the 44-day war. Moreover, these new realities open up broad opportunities for achieving stability and security in the South Caucasus, expanding cooperation on a bilateral and multilateral basis.

WAS IT NECESSARY?

President Aliyev on the illegal entry of Iranian trucks into Garabagh

“Azerbaijan has taken all necessary measures to prevent the illegal entry of Iranian trucks into Garabagh through Armenia,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

“It is not the first time that Iranian trucks illegally enter Garabagh. We recorded similar cases during the occupation period ([of Garabagh] - Interfax Azerbaijan). Trucks with Iranian license plates have entered there regularly. We knew about it. But, of course, there was no specific information as now. We expressed our dissatisfaction with the Iranian side through various channels. However, this process continued,” Mr. Aliyev said in his interview with the Turkish news agency Anadolu, commenting on Azerbaijan's tightening of control over Iranian vehicles on the section of the Gorus-Gafan road controlled by Azerbaijan.

According to him, after the end of the Garabagh war in 2020, Azerbaijan is technically capable of tracking the movement of Iranian trucks through the Lachin Corridor.

“The distance from our military positions to the road leading to Khankendi is 5-6 meters. We have sufficient technical capabilities along the Lachin Corridor, as well as around Shusha and other regions. There are cameras. We use our satellite, UAVs. We saw that trucks continue to go there after the war,” the president said.

Mr. Aliyev also noted that he instructed the staff of the Administration to discuss this issue with the Iranian Ambassador to Baku.

“We do not want to bring this to the official level. Let them talk in a friendly way and declare that this needs to be ended. We consider this a disrespectful act. Disrespect for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which must be stopped. This conversation, if memory serves, took place in July. After that we began to monitor the situation and at the beginning of each month, we record data on the number of trucks leaving and entering the region, the cargo onboard, etc. We have all the data, including the license plates. This information was also published in media,” Mr. Aliyev said.

President added that Iranians tried to cheat us by installing Armenian plates on their trucks. “It was a fraud. They tried to deceive us. They did it incompetently that there were Persian inscriptions on trucks with Armenian numbers below. I want to note that several vehicles even had the same license plates. It was done haphazardly. This shows that they want to continue their activities, but under disguise,” Mr. Aliyev said.

He recalled that Azerbaijan officially sent a note to the Iranian side by summoning the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.

“We expressed our complaints and asked him to put an end to this. This was in mid-August. We hoped this would end. But between August 11 - September 11, about 60 Iranian trucks illegally visited Garabagh again. To prevent this, we took practical steps. We took responsible actions based on friendly relations. Initially, it was a verbal warning, followed by an official note, and finally customs, border, and police checkpoints,” Mr. Aliyev said.

He said that Azerbaijan began to control the section of the road (Gorus-Gafan) passing through the territory of Azerbaijan, as a result of which the number of Iranian trucks heading to Garabagh dropped to zero.

“Was it necessary to do this? 25,000 people live in Garabagh in the zone controlled by the Russian peacekeeping forces. Is this market so important? Is this trade so important (for Iran - IF) that they show open disrespect for a country that they consider friendly and fraternal? Of course, we used all the possibilities defined by international conventions and laws. Some say that we only charge customs duty from Iranian vehicles. But when we travel to another country, we also pay customs duties. If someone uses the Azerbaijani territory, they should pay necessary taxes and duties too.” President of Azerbaijan said.