Official diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran were established following the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991). Iran and Azerbaijan share, to a large extent, the same history, religion, and culture. The territory of what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan was separated from Iran in the first half of the 19th century, through the Russo-Persian Wars. In the area to the north of the river Aras, the territory of the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan was part of Iran until it was occupied by Russia. Iran and Azerbaijan are both majority Shia Muslim nations. They have respectively the highest and second highest Shia population percentage in the world,Juan Eduardo Campo,Encyclopedia of Islam, p.625 as well as the history of Shi'ism which is rooted in both nations from exactly the same moment in history, whereas the majority of the population of both their neighboring nations are either predominantly Christians or Sunni Muslims.
In recent decades there have been tensions between the two countries as their political alignments vary by degree. The Republic of Azerbaijan has become increasingly pro-Western and is an ally of Israel, Turkey and the United States (the latter two being NATO members), whereas the Islamic Republic of Iran is largely anti-Western and is an ally of China, Palestine and Russia. Iranian rhetoric has periodically portrayed Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel as a security threat.
In May 1918, the Musavat government adopted the name "Azerbaijan" for the newly established Azerbaijan Democratic Republic for political reasons, even though the name of "Azerbaijan" had always been used to refer to the adjacent region of contemporary northwest Iran. As the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, a relatively downwards spiral started in the modern relations between Iran and Azerbaijan. In May 2015, the Ambassador of Iran to Azerbaijan announced that it did not recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Iran recognized Azerbaijan's independence in 1991, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. Iran has an embassy in Baku and a consulate-general in Nakhchivan City. Azerbaijan has an embassy in Tehran and a consulate-general in Tabriz. Both countries are full members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Context
For almost all of its history, the territory of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan was a part of the various Iranian/Persian empires or Persianate empires, specifically during the reign of dynasties such as Median, Achaemenid, Parthians, Sassanid, the Shirvanshah, various dynasties of the Iranian Intermezzo, the Kara Koyunlu, the Ak Koyunlu, the Safavids, the Afsharids, the Zands, and the Qajars. The South Caucasus, in general, has been influenced by Iranian culture for thousands of years. In the course of the 19th century, following the occupation of the Caucasus by Russian troops during the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) and Russo-Persian War (1826-1828), Qajar Iran was forced to cede what is now Azerbaijan, alongside Georgia, Dagestan, and Armenia to Imperial Russia under the terms of the treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay.
According to Pierre Thorez: "Although throughout history the Caucasus has usually been incorporated in political entities belonging to the Iranian world, at the beginning of the 19th century Russia took it, along with the Transcaucasus, from the Qajars (1133–1342/1779–1924), severing those historical ties. Since the establishment of Soviet power on Caucasian territory, relations with Persia have been reduced to an insignificant level.". According to Tadeusz Swietochowski, the territories of Iran and the republic of Azerbaijan usually shared the same history from the time of ancient Media (ninth to seventh centuries b.c.) and the Persian Empire (sixth to fourth centuries b.c.).Historical Background Vol. 3, Colliers Encyclopedia CD-ROM, 02-28-1996
During an official visit to Baku in October 2012, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described his country's relations with Azerbaijan as "brotherly and very deep," pointing to the countries’ shared ethnic and religious heritage. A large amount of ethnic Azerbaijanis populate the northwest region of Iran and are native to the region, which is also called Azerbaijan, and both countries are majority Shia, while they hold the 1st and 2nd largest Shia adherents by population percentages in the world. As with almost their entire history, which is fully intertwined, the history of Shi'ism as the majority religion is rooted from exactly the same moment in history, dating back to the Safavid era. Representing two of only four Shia majority countries in the world, Azerbaijan and Iran share religious ties and a common border. Far more ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Iran than in the Republic of Azerbaijan itself (approximately nine million), a result of the irrevocable forced cession by Qajar Iran of the territory that nowadays comprises Azerbaijan Republic to Imperial Russia in the course of Russo-Persian Wars from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Although Azerbaijan and Iran share strong historical and cultural connections, the countries are not natural allies. According to Alex Vatanka at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., "Ahmadinejad’s statement blatantly misrepresented the current state of affairs; today, it is not historical affinity but rather intense suspicion and rivalry that shape ties between Baku and Tehran. The same month Ahmadinejad made the statement, a court in Baku gave lengthy prison sentences to 22 Azerbaijanis charged with spying for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and plotting to carry out attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in Azerbaijan."
1918–1920 In 1918, the Musavat government adopted the name "Azerbaijan" for the newly established Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, for political reasons, even though the name of "Azerbaijan" had always been used to refer to the adjacent region of contemporary northwest Iran.
Prior to the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the name was only in use for the region of contemporary northwest Iran, namely Iranian Azerbaijan. Historically, the region of what is now the Azerbaijan Republic was known as Shirvan and Arran; two historically Iranian regions.
According to Hamid Ahmadi:
According to Tadeusz Swietochowski:Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. pg 69
Although a naming dispute had arisen with Qajar Iran, with the latter protesting this decision, in tandem, the young Azerbaijan Republic also faced a threat from the nascent Soviets in Moscow and the Armenians. To escape the possibility of a Soviet invasion and an even greater imminent threat of an Armenian invasion, Muslim Nakhchivan proposed being annexed by Iran. The then pro-British government in Tehran led by Vossug ed Dowleh made endeavours among Baku's leadership to join Iran. To promote this idea, Vosugh ed Dowleh dispatched two separate Iranian delegations; one to Baku and one to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The delegation at Baku, at the behest of Zia ol Din Tabatabaee, held intensive negotiations with the leadership of the Musavat party during the increasing chaos and instability in the city. During the closing stages, an accord was reached between them; however, before the idea was presented to Vossug ed Dowleh in Tehran, the Communists took over Baku and terminated the Musavat-Ottoman rule. The Iranian delegation at Paris, which was headed by foreign minister Firouz Nosrat-ed-Dowleh III, reached a unity negotiation with the delegation from Baku and signed a confederation agreement.
On 16 July 1919, the Council of Ministers [of ADR] appointed Adil Khan Ziatkhan, who had up to that time served as Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic representative of the republic of Azerbaijan to the court of the Iranian King of Kings."Внешняя политика контрреволюционных правительств в начале 1919–го года", Красный Архив, No. 6 (37), 1929, p. 94.
In the end, these efforts proved to be of no avail. In 1920, the Bolshevik 11th Red Army conquered the Caucasus and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic became Azerbaijan SSR. In 1922, Azerbaijan SSR was incorporated into the Soviet Union, and from that point till 1991, the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan continued in the context of the Soviet-Iranian relations. However, after World War II, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs could issue limited visas for travel to Iran only and Iran also maintained a consulate in Baku.
Modern history
Membership of OIC, relations with Israel and alienation of Iran
Iran was one of the first countries to establish full diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan. Following the declaration of the Parliament of Azerbaijan to restore independence of Azerbaijan Republic on 18 October 1991, and in early December 1991, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati visited Baku, where he signed a number of agreements on political, economic, and cultural cooperation and pledged to support Azerbaijan's membership in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation). Within the few days after the visit, Iran recognized Azerbaijan on 4 January 1992, upgraded its consulate in Baku to establish full diplomatic relations.James P. Nichol. Diplomacy in the Former Soviet Republics, Praeger/Greenwood, 1995, , p. 150
Tehran was quick to recognize Azerbaijan as an independent state and set out to create amicable relations with a country similar to its own. Iran saw Azerbaijan as fertile ground for spreading its Islamic Revolution further. Azerbaijan was skeptical of Iran's theocratic government and looked instead to Turkey as a strategic partner. "Iran’s initial euphoria at the prospect of a new Shia state quickly turned into dread, as Baku expressed irredentist sentiments and promoted the idea of a ‘Greater Azerbaijan,’ which would unite Azerbaijan (the country) and Azerbaijan (the region in northwest Iran). Fearing Baku's intentions to fuel secessionism inside its borders, Iran provided vital backing to Armenia in its war against Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which dragged on from 1988 to 1994 and ended in an inconclusive cease-fire." Iran's siding with Armenia during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War has not been forgotten in Azerbaijan, and Tehran's support of Armenia—especially in light of Azerbaijan's recent growth in power projection—has not abated.
Azerbaijan's power is growing primarily because of the influx of oil and gas revenues emanating from the Caspian Sea. Recognizing this, Iran has sought to reengage its northern neighbor and nudge Baku to reconsider its foreign relations—principally its close ties with Israel—because nowhere in the region does Iran see a more unambiguous Israeli footprint than it does in Azerbaijan. "Israel and Azerbaijan share the common goal of containing Iranian influence. In this joint front, Azerbaijan provides proximity to Iran—with much ion about Azerbaijani soil being used as a staging ground for Israeli military operations—while Israel possesses superior weapons technologies and other resources." In February 2012, Azerbaijan signed a $1.6 billion defense deal with Israel that included air defense systems, intelligence hardware, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Azerbaijan is aware that its overtures and agreements with Israel anger Iran, but its response is that Iran's strong ties with Armenia anger Azerbaijan. "When Tehran has appealed to Azerbaijan’s Islamic identity, the Azerbaijanis quickly point out that Tehran’s relations with Armenia have been trouble-free compared with its ties with its Muslim neighbors."
Abulfaz Elchibey