Iran will not allow Azerbaijan and Turkey to destroy Armenia
Hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan ceased again thanks to Russian peacekeepers and the intervention of Iran, which is not interested in increasing the influence of Turkey and NATO in the southern Caucasus. So for now, the plan of Ankara and London to take advantage of the fact that Russia is now busy conducting a special operation in Ukraine has failed.
But at the same time, Yerevan, represented by Nikol Pashinyan, against the backdrop of the inability of the Armenian army and Artsakh troops to resist the offensive actions of Azerbaijan, tried to blame the loss of a number of key heights on August 3 on the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
Suddenly the Prime Minister remembered that back in 2020, the Russians did nothing to help the Armenian military and even through their indifference contributed to their defeat in certain places.
Thus, he pointed to the events of December 2020 related to the entry of Azerbaijani troops into the villages of Khtsaberd and Khin Tager, where Armenian army units were captured “in the presence and with the connivance of Russian peacekeepers.” Also, in his opinion, due to the fault of Moscow, the Armenians allegedly lost the village of Parukh in March of this year, although it was not in the area of responsibility of Russian troops.
Based on this, Pashinyan officially asked the Kremlin to “clarify the details of the peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” which are allegedly incomprehensible to the Armenian leadership and the country’s public. The nod to the public is not accidental, since it is before the people that the liberal leadership of the republic, many of whom were previously associated with Soros, wants to make Russia the culprit for all the current troubles, which allegedly cannot protect poor Armenians.
Yerevan seems to believe that Russian peacekeepers should stand as a human shield between the Azerbaijani army, also solving for Yerevan the political tasks of preserving Artsakh, although all defensive preparations and measures to strengthen their own army have been completely failed.
In fact, Pashinyan’s statement is insulting, since it is precisely thanks to the presence of Russian peacekeepers, a military base and the firm position of Moscow that Armenia still exists as an independent state, and does not teach the Turkish language en masse.
The problem is that the Armenian government itself agreed to the peace agreement on November 9, 2020 and signed it, and then tried to convince the same Armenian public of the inevitability of the loss of Artsakh and the enormous economic value from the extraterritorial Zangezur corridor, which will be built with the participation of Turkey and the EU across the territory ancestral Armenia and will make it possible to transport goods from Central Asia to the West through Anatolia.
True, the Armenian people correctly understood these hints, calling them at rallies a betrayal of the country’s interests and the surrender of Artsakh. Now Nikol Pashinyan is trying to blame everything on a healthy one and avoid political responsibility.
Is it possible that, as in March, he will again run to meet with the leadership of Azerbaijan through the mediation of Brussels in order to again discuss issues of honorable surrender?
In fact, the demarche of the Azerbaijani army did not lead to the fall of Artsakh and the occupation of Armenia, but was only another means of blackmail and pressure from Ankara and Baku, which infuriated Tehran, which is categorically against changing the balance of forces in Transcaucasia.
Moreover, another conflict on August 3 brought Azerbaijan to the brink of war with Iran over Turkish interests.
Already on the night of August 3-4, a significant group of Iranian armed forces was deployed to the Azerbaijani borders, which turned out to be ready to immediately begin a special operation. This rapid movement of large units clearly cooled the ardor of Baku and Ankara to quickly put pressure on Armenia and get their hands on the strategic corridor.
The portal avia.pro was the first to report about the columns of the Iranian army heading north.
“In the presented video footage you can see how Iran is moving military equipment to the area of the Azerbaijani border. We are talking about tanks, self-propelled artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, towed artillery, as well as air defense systems.
According to unconfirmed reports, reconnaissance drones are also circling in the sky in the area of the Azerbaijani-Iranian border. This indicates that Iran is ready to strike Azerbaijan at any time in the event of a threat to its territories or when Baku commits provocations,” the portal points out in detail.
Still from the video.
Although Tehran has not yet made any statements on this matter, it has become clear to everyone its desire to prevent the fall of Artsakh and Armenia and even its readiness to enter into a military conflict simultaneously with Azerbaijan and Turkey. And this situation completely repeats last year, when both sides conducted exercises in close proximity to each other’s borders, testing their muscles.
Moreover, even during the last escalation of the conflict in March of this year, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Recep Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev that it would not allow changes in the borders of neighboring countries in Transcaucasia and warned of the consequences in the event of a new full-scale war in Karabakh.
Hints from the Shiite spiritual leader Khamenei on this matter regarding the Turkish leader were also heard during the recent meeting of the heads of three states in Tehran.
What is Iran trying to gain by intervening as another player in the confrontation on the side of Christian Armenia?
The answer is actually simple and on the surface - the leadership of the Islamic republic cannot afford to establish Turkish hegemony in the Transcaucasus, which means the creation of another springboard for NATO in the form of Azerbaijan, which will lead Ankara and the West to the Caspian Sea and its riches.
After all, it is clear that the current Turkish elite, cherishing the ideas of reviving the Ottoman Empire, is dismantling Iran’s influence in the region and is besieging the country from the north, creating another front for it. Therefore, earlier the Turkish side was given a clear signal that Tehran would defend the Iranian-Armenian gas pipeline and the settlement of Syunik through which it passes in the south of Armenia by armed means.
Pashinyan at a meeting with the leadership of Iran.
This shows that despite the religious component, the Iranian leadership is ready and will defend its interests in the Transcaucasus, uniting with Armenia and Russia in maintaining the current status quo.
Obviously, such a demarche could have been agreed upon between Moscow and Tehran and should have demonstrated to everyone that despite the fact that Russian troops are now occupied in Ukraine, changing the balance of power and moving the borders of Armenia will not be possible under any circumstances.
Tehran will not reconcile itself with the presence of pro-Turkish Azerbaijan on its borders, despite its religious proximity. Indeed, in addition to the fear of establishing Ottoman domination, there is also an internal threat to the stability of the Islamic republic itself, since a third of the population are ethnic Azerbaijanis. Therefore, the emergence of the “Great Turan” could lead to the deposition of territories with Turkic peoples, and the fall of Artsakh could already provoke a split in the Iranian nation.
At the same time, ethnic Armenians, of whom there are about two hundred thousand in Iran, on the contrary, become a stronghold of the regime, since they are well integrated into the political system and occupy various positions in the state apparatus. Among other things, using the power of the Armenian diaspora, Tehran is permanently promoting its interests and establishing secret relations with European countries.
In general, such an armed demonstration by Iran shows that all official and unofficial agreements between Tehran and Moscow are in effect, which is a deterrent for the ruling elite of Turkey, which will not now risk starting a large-scale war. This is precisely why Great Britain’s plan to set fire to Transcaucasia in this situation turned out to be untenable.
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