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Azerbaijan Fears Neighbour Iran's Radical Influence

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  • Azerbaijan Fears Neighbour Iran's Radical Influence

    AZERBAIJAN FEARS NEIGHBOUR IRAN'S RADICAL INFLUENCE
    By Emil Guliyev (AFP)

    Agence France Presse
    Feb 28 2011

    ASTARA, Azerbaijan - The Iranian potatoes, oranges and raisins on
    sale in the bazaars of Astara are not the only signs of the Islamic
    republic's influence in this Azerbaijani border town.

    There is also the Iranian television station which beams the news
    according to Tehran into Astara's homes and tea-houses in the
    Azerbaijani language.

    Hundreds of Iranian trucks rumble north each day along the nearby
    highway, loaded with goods bound for Azerbaijani markets, but despite
    the trading links between the mainly Shiite Muslim neighbours,
    their political relationship has become increasingly strained --
    particularly over the issue of Islam.

    Azerbaijan is an ex-Soviet state with a determinedly secular
    government, and there have been small but widely-publicised protests
    outside the Iranian embassy in Baku in recent weeks, accusing Tehran of
    supporting Islamic extremists in an attempt to destabilise the country.

    There is a huge ethnic Azerbaijani minority in Iran itself -- up to
    a quarter of the Islamic republic's 74 million population, according
    to some estimates, and way outnumbering Azerbaijan's own population
    of eight million.

    Relaxing in a tea-house in Astara, local trader Elchin Ibrahimli
    said that Tehran was using the Azerbaijani-language broadcasts on
    its Sahar television channel as a propaganda weapon.

    "This channel likes to exaggerate everything," he said. "For example,
    if something minor has happened in Azerbaijan, the channel's
    journalists are portraying it as a disaster or a global-scale problem."

    Another local trader, Agasan Hashimli, said that the channel
    "skillfully exploits problems that exist in Azerbaijan" such as a
    recent controversy about the banning of Islamic headscarves in schools.

    The hijab row sparked demonstrations by pious Muslims, causing
    officials to accuse Iran of helping to stir up discontent.

    The Sahar channel also regularly relays criticism of Azerbaijan for
    its friendly links with Tehran's foes, the United States and Israel.

    "In general, Western rapprochement with Azerbaijan -- in any form --
    is perceived by Iran as a threat," said Zahid Oruj, a lawmaker from
    the pro-government Ana Vatan (Motherland) party.

    "Iran supports Islamic extremism in Azerbaijan because if religion
    takes on a leading role in the state, they will have more levers to
    influence Azerbaijani policy," he said.

    Reports on Azerbaijani television over the past month have also
    accused Iran of meddling in the country's internal affairs by backing
    religious radicals.

    Another source of anger is Tehran's growing economic relationship
    with Azerbaijan's bitter enemy, Armenia, amid the increasingly
    heated dispute between Baku and Yerevan over the territory of Nagorny
    Karabakh, where the ex-Soviet neighbours fought a war in the 1990s.

    "Iran calls on Azerbaijan to become an enemy of Israel because
    they believe that religion requires it, but at the same time Iran
    is actively co-operating with a country that has occupied part of
    Azerbaijan, a Muslim country," said analyst Sadreddin Soltan

    Karabakh has been controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists backed
    by Yerevan since the war.

    "Where, then, is the Muslim solidarity?" he asked.

    In January, energy-rich Baku agreed a five-year deal to supply large
    amounts of gas to Tehran, which despite its own massive reserves has to
    import gas because of lack of foreign investment, energy inefficiency
    and huge domestic demand.

    But analyst Soltan said that Baku is also "under pressure from the
    international community to join in with sanctions against Iran" over
    Tehran's nuclear programme -- another potential source of future
    tensions.

    The town of Astara is itself a symbol of the complex relationship
    between Azerbaijan and Iran: it was divided when the border was
    defined by a treaty in the 19th century, leaving most families in
    the area with relatives on the opposite side of the present-day border.

    At the busy customs post, crowds of people wait to cross over into
    Iran to buy and sell goods or visit family members.

    At the bazaar itself, wholesaler Faig Jafarzade said that the
    Iranian people had the right to choose a strict Islamic regime if
    they genuinely wanted one.

    "It's their own internal affair," he said. "If this system can feed
    their people, then it's the best one for them."

    He said that the Iranian Sahar TV channel was only watched because
    local stations did not allow internal criticism of the Azerbaijani
    authorities.

    Tehran, which is fighting sometimes violent rebellions by Kurds in
    its northwest and Baluch in the southwest, would be nervous at the
    prospect of Iranian Azeris demanding wider cultural autonomy.

    Yet the same time, Iranians of Azeri origin hold top positions in the
    Iranian government and in the Azeri-populated regions in the north
    of Iran are among the richest in the country.

    The Azeri population in Iran control much of the crucial bazaar trade
    and are tightly integrated into the population in big cities such
    as Tehran.




    From: A. Papazian
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