\n As Azerbaijan is hit by drone attacks and its\u00a0security forces claim to have arrested Iranian agents planning attacks against Israeli interests, fears of contagion in the Iranian war are rising. For Turkey, which has a defence alliance with Azerbaijan, its relationship with Baku is complicated by the latter’s close ties with Israel. <\/p>\n
On 5 March, drones attacked the airport of Azerbaijan\u2019s Nakhchivan exclave, which borders Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n Baku blamed Iran, a charge Tehran denies. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev condemned the attack as \u201cterrorism\u201d and warned Tehran of a severe response if the attacks continued.<\/p>\n The drone strikes are viewed by Baku as a warning over its close ties with Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some verbal attacks from [social media] accounts associated with the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards that Azerbaijan should expel Israeli agents and things like that. We responded that we are not part of this conflict,\u201d explained Farid Shafijev, chairman of the Baku-based\u00a0government-affiliated think tank, the\u00a0Center for Analysis of International Relations<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are watching closely, and the Azerbaijani military is on high alert in case of any new provocations.”<\/p>\n Following the drone attack, Azerbaijani security forces claimed to have arrested Iranian agents planning attacks against Israeli interests, including the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan crude oil pipeline \u2013 which is believed to provide around 30 percent of Israel\u2019s oil needs, shipped from the Turkish port of Ceyhan.<\/p>\n Could the war in Iran lay a path for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan?<\/a><\/p>\n Azeri minority in Iran <\/p>\n “Azerbaijan has been a strategic partner for many years,\u201d explained Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies<\/a>, an independent think tank in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n She claims the Iranian war is strengthening the relationship between Azerbaijan<\/a> and Israel, which she explains in part thrives on “the\u00a0location of Azerbaijan as a neighbouring state to Iran, which also fears Iran in an existential way, similar to Israel”.<\/p>\n Despite Baku\u2019s claims of neutrality, Iranian suspicion of Azerbaijan over its ties with Israel are also fuelled by Iran\u2019s large Azeri minority.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, Iranian security forces have arrested dozens of ethnic Azerbaijanis accused of working for \u201cforeign powers”.<\/p>\n Turkey warns against drawing Iran’s Kurds into Middle East war<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe Azeri minority in Iran is a huge number \u2013 20 to 25 million people \u2013 densely populating the territory of two huge provinces of Iran,\u201d explains Azerbaijan expert Zaur Gasimov of the German Academic Exchange Service<\/a>, a joint organisation of German universities that fosters international relations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their Azeri identity remains strong, with the language widely spoken despite being banned in secondary schools. However, Gasimov says ethnic Azerbaijanis are well integrated into Iranian society \u2013 but Tehran remains suspicious of this minority, given its past.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we look back to the history of the Second World War, there was an Azerbaijani republic from 1941 to 1946 with its capital in Tebriz. That, of course, forged certain sensitivity on the Iranian side.”<\/p>\n Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has voiced growing support for Iran\u2019s Azeri minority.<\/p>\n “Independent Azerbaijan is a place of hope for Azerbaijanis living in Iran,\u201d he declared after March\u2019s drone attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cAzerbaijan does not want the breakup of Iran and chaos inside Iran,\u201d stressed Shafiyev. But he says Baku\u2019s priority is the treatment of Azeris in Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cThere might be different scenarios. The escalation of the war, the internal disturbances, civil war, things can go in different directions, and among the public in Azerbaijan, this is a very sensitive issue, the security and wellbeing of the Azerbaijan population in Iran.”<\/p>\n