On the evening of March 28, an unknown person shot from a Kalashnikov assault rifle at Azerbaijani parliament member Fozil Mustafo. The attacker managed to escape. The deputy reportedly survived and was taken to the hospital with injuries.
The State Security Service of Azerbaijan called the incident a terrorist attack. The Azerbaijani press put forward the version that Tehran, which has difficult relations with Baku, was behind the crime. The BBC published an article to explain why. The deputy is known for his anti-Iran stance, he has repeatedly said that Iran is trying to influence the preachers of mosques in the South Caucasus, and he has accused Iran of supporting Armenia.
The enemy of my enemy...
Armenia and Azerbaijan, which fought each other in Karabakh, border Iran, and during the 44-day conflict in 2020, Iran brought its troops to the border of the two countries.
Azerbaijan reportedly does not like the fact that during the 2020 war, Iran did not close its border with Armenia, and after that goods passed from Iran to Nagorno-Karabakh through the territory of Armenia. There have also been cases of arrests of Iranian drivers going there in Azerbaijan.
After the Second Karabakh War, the situation in the region changed. The role of Turkey, a strategic ally of Azerbaijan and a rival of Iran in the region has increased.
"In the 2020 war in Karabakh, Azerbaijan received weapons from Israel, which is considered one of the main enemies of the Islamic Republic in Iran."
Therefore, the subsequent deterioration of relations between Iran and Azerbaijan surprised few. Since the end of the Second Karabakh war, both countries have conducted military exercises several times on the border with each other, including on the Araks River, which crosses the border of the two countries.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahi said that there are Israeli armed forces on the territory of Azerbaijan, allegedly near the border with Iran, and Iran is ready to take "all necessary measures in this case."
A series of attacks
In 2023, tensions increased. In January, a man launched an armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran, killing one embassy employee and injuring two others. Azerbaijan has long accused Iran of trying to destabilize the situation in the country, says the BBC.
In November 2022, it was reported that several Azerbaijani citizens were arrested by the Iranian government, who were taken to its territory, distributed weapons, trained to use them and taken to Azerbaijan to form radical groups. Even before the Karabakh war, people who spied for Iran were arrested in Azerbaijan.
The opening ceremony of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv was held On the eve of the assassination of the deputy, with the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and several members of parliament.
A painful history together
Iran and Azerbaijan are connected by common history and ethnic roots. Iranian Azerbaijanis are the largest ethnic minority in the Islamic Republic.
Despite the fact that Azerbaijan's closest ally, Turkey, is a Sunni country, the population of both countries is predominantly Shiite (one of the two major sects of Islam). Azerbaijan became part of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century. Until now, the regions of Iran bordering Azerbaijan, inhabited by ethnic Azerbaijanis, are called East and West Azerbaijan, respectively.
In Baku, these regions are collectively known as South Azerbaijan. The Iranian government is worried about separatist sentiment and the activity of supporters of the idea of uniting Azerbaijan as a single independent state.
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