Iranian state TV host says Azerbaijan will be annexed to Iran if…

An Iranian TV host has sparked a diplomatic row by suggesting that neighboring Azerbaijan will soon be united with Iran. Hossein Hosseini, a host on Iran’s state-run Ofogh TV, said on air: “If you don’t tell some people, they will imagine it anyway. A host from Baku said: ‘All of Iran was ours!’ They used to say that Azerbaijan and Ardabil are also ours. Tell the host from Baku that if Iran decides, we will soon broadcast the weather forecast for northern Azerbaijan on our TV!”

Mr. Hosseini also expressed hope that “old Azerbaijan” would soon join Iran. The comments, which appeared to have been made without prior coordination, were seen as a response to the recent media debate in Azerbaijan.

These remarks have raised questions, as they appear to imply a desire for territorial expansion and unification with Azerbaijan, which has been an independent country since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

It is worth noting that the comments were made on a state-run television channel, which may indicate some level of official support or at least tolerance for such views.

However, it is also possible that the comments were made without official approval and do not reflect the views of the Iranian government.

The comments come at a time when tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan are already high. Although both countries are Shia, there have always been tensions related to the fact that Azerbaijanis constitute the largest ethnic minority in Iran, with estimates suggesting that they number around 15 to 20 million people, or approximately 18 to 25 percent of the country’s population. Iran’s current president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has Azeri roots, while Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is half-Azerbaijani on his mother’s side.

Azerbaijan has sided with predominantly Sunni Turkey in the geopolitical rivalry between Turkey and Iran. Tehran has also supported Azerbaijan’s rival Armenia and has fiercely opposed Baku’s dream of creating a “Zangezur Corridor” through Armenia between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan.

While the project is supported by Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia has rejected it, fearing it would lead to a shift in regional borders. Iran shares these concerns, viewing the corridor as a potential threat to its national security and regional influence.

The controversy over the Zangezur proposal escalated after Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly expressed support for the corridor in a conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, according to Baku-based media. This was followed by an official statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson stressing the need to establish the Zangezur corridor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded by saying: “Any threat to the territorial integrity of our neighbors or any redrawing of borders, whether north, south, east or west, is totally unacceptable and is a red line for Iran.”(…)

During the latest round of tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan in 2022, a scathing editorial written by academic and diplomat Ehsan Movahedian for a magazine linked to the Iranian Foreign Ministry called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev a “political dwarf.” Ehsan Movahedian denigrated the leader of Iran’s neighboring country by detailing his alleged transgressions as a gambling addict. Movahedian concluded that the Aliev family, including Ilham Aliev’s late father and his predecessor as president Heydar Aliev, are not “grateful” for the love and magnanimity of the Islamic Republic of Iran and have “forgotten that without Iran’s help in the first Karabakh war, Armenia would have advanced to Baku.” Movahedian went on to say that “they would all have returned to Tabriz as refugees.” In a truly bizarre claim, Movahedian went on to say that the young Aliev once had to have Tehran pay for tailor-made suits for him because he had no money. He then accuses the Azerbaijani military of being weak compared to the “flood” of Iranians, while claiming that it would cost Tehran less than $100,000 to invade and occupy Baku. In a final fiery statement, Movahedian declared that “Aliev has opened the gates of hell” with his childish actions.

In a final fiery statement, Movahedian declared that “Aliev has opened the gates of hell” with his childish and crude actions and that dark days await him. Leaving little to the imagination, he spoke of how Iran’s military response in 2001 to defend its interests in the Caspian Sea would be repeated on a much larger scale (at the time, an Iranian warship and fighter jet threatened a BP ship exploring for oil in waters claimed by Azerbaijan).