IRNA agency's "response" to President Ilham Aliyev's accusations against Iran has already become a subject of discussion since yesterday. The response reflects Tehran's arguments is written by Mohsen Pakaein and, is aimed not only at the domestic audience or manipulating the Azerbaijani public, but also at the international world - otherwise, they would not have published it in several languages.

What accusations are they worried about and what arguments do they have?

Recalling President Ilham Aliyev's words that the tension in relations between the two countries has never been at such a high level, the author seeks an answer to this:

"The first question of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan was related to why the Iranian military training was held on the northwestern borders. We should ask him, which country laid the foundation of military exercises in the region? Didn't the Republic of Azerbaijan, together with Turkey and Pakistan, conduct training against the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia in Nakhchivan? This training took place before the "Conquest of Khyber" by the Iranian armed forces. Iran's exercise was held in order to support the territorial integrity of the countries of the region, while Azerbaijan violated the territorial integrity of Armenia. Why didn't Mr Aliyev complain about the training at that time?!"
So, as Iran considered Azerbaijan's joint training with Turkey in Nakhchivan as a threat to Armenia's security, it immediately sent its army to the coast of Araz - supposedly! “Love of Armenia” has blinded Iran so much that they have no idea what kind of argument they are making. If the training is against Armenia, then why is Iran seriously concerned about it? If he admits that this is against Armenia, then why does he feel offended? Is it because they are afraid that their Christian Armenian brothers will be defeated?

Pakaein continues his claims by writing that Aliyev "even made historical claims about Armenian lands at the summit of Turkic-speaking countries and stated that he was trying to use military means to open the Zangezur Corridor and annex a part of Armenia to his territory. Such action means changing the region’s geopolitical situation, threatening geographical borders, violating the territorial integrity of a country and trying to create new conflicts. And Iran cannot be indifferent to it."

This is not only a distortion of the facts but also a brazen lie and an unsuccessful attempt to cover up their alliance with the Armenians against Azerbaijan.

First of all, Azerbaijan has never stated that it claims any territory of Armenia, therefore, there is no need to mention annexing a part of Armenia by military means. Azerbaijan has recognized the territorial integrity of Armenia for a long time and has repeatedly announced it, demanding that Armenia also recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Pakaein claims: "Just as Iran supports the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the case of Karabakh and 7 regions of this country, at the same time, based on its principled policy, it also supports the territorial integrity of Armenia; because the continuation of regional conflict and threats to security is an obstacle to Iran's economic cooperation with its neighbours.

When did Iran put serious pressure on Armenia to restore Azerbaijan's territorial integrity while nearly 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territories remained under occupation for 30 years? On the contrary, in May 1992, Iran allegedly took the initiative to mediate, reassured Azerbaijan, and directly supported the occupation of Shusha!

Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani visited Karabakh many times and held meetings with Armenian terrorists, and the occupation of Azerbaijan's territories was the subject of discussion in those meetings - there are also photo facts about this.

While Azerbaijan was putting economic pressure on Armenia to vacate the occupied territories, Iran has actually become Yerevan's main trade partner. It is no coincidence that Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first president of Armenia, openly admitted that "we would have been destroyed long ago if Iran had not helped us."

Iran, which is supposedly terribly worried about the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem, one of the holy cities of Muslims, and which declares Israel an enemy of Islam, happily witnessed the destruction of 165 mosques in Karabakh, the keeping of pigs at mosques, and always worked hard to keep the "Muslim land" under occupation.

If the joint training of Azerbaijan and Turkey in Nakhchivan "created a threat" to the internationally recognized territories of Armenia, and Iran did not ignore it and gathered its army on the coast of Araz, then why didn’t it become “indifferent” at least once during the 30 years and gathered its army in the direction of Zangazur to Armenia while there was not only a threat but an actual occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands?

Azerbaijan demanded from Armenia a straight road to Nakhchivan only in accordance with the statement of November 10, 2020. If Iran considers it a "violation of territorial integrity", then why doesn't it think that the Lachin Corridor violates the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan?

On the contrary, they use the Lachin corridor and carry free fuel, distribute food, and implement "projects" in and around Khankendi to the Armenians of Khankendi, who are around 30,000, in order to strengthen separatism within Azerbaijan. But doesn't all this mean a violation of the internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan?

As soon as the Zangezur Corridor is on the agenda, Iran immediately rushed to deploy forces in the area under the guise of opening a consulate in Gafan and protecting the consulate. How big is Armenia and how many people live there so Iran opens a consulate in Gafan? Why didn't Iran open a consulate in Gafan during 30 years, why did it remember to establish a consulate in Gafan only after Azerbaijan restored its territories and the issue of the Zangezur corridor came up?

Why did Iran put the North-South Corridor on the agenda as soon as Azerbaijan activates the idea of creating the Middle Corridor with the Zangezur Corridor? After all, this route has no prospects, it goes through the mountains, and digging tens of kilometres of tunnels can cost several tens of billions. Considering all these costs, why is Iran trying to build the "corridor" that has no prospects?

The goal is to oppose the economic projects authored only by Azerbaijan, to prevent Baku from becoming a logistics centre, to hinder its development, to incite Armenian separatism in the region, and to maintain a permanent security problem for Azerbaijan.

Let's go back to 1992: Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutallibov stated that he had received information about the siege of Khojaly, and therefore he met with the then-Iranian President Rafsanjani while he was in Iran for the conference of Islamic countries. He asked for help, but Rafsanjani said that he could not interfere in any way.

Why didn’t Iran issue an official warning to Yerevan by deploying the army to the border, and start training to prevent Azerbaijanis - Muslims from being subjected to genocide? After all, Iran is not "indifferent", Iran is against the occupation, and it thinks about the importance of territorial integrity!

If it is so "principled" in the issue of territorial integrity, what are Iranian special service officers doing in Khankendi now? Why did Iran send special missionaries there without getting permission from Azerbaijan? Whom are they training in Khankendi, what did they bring with them, and what are they preparing for?

Why does Iran spend billions for Armenia when there are so many socio-political problems in its own country? Is there a report to the people of Iran that how much money is offered to Christian Armenia so that the Muslim land is not completely liberated from occupation?

Pakaein then touches upon President Ilham Aliyev's views on Iranian Azerbaijanis:

"He (Ilham Aliyev - ed.) knows very well that the ten million population of Azerbaijan are of Iranian descent and have been rudely separated from their homeland. Now, if such historical claims are to be made, Iran will have a lot to say. The Islamic Republic of Iran recognized the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan and did not seek to make historical claims in order to maintain friendship with this country, and it is better for Mr Aliyev to leave the historical issues to the historians and allow the two countries to have good relations with each other.

First of all, the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties were not signed between Russia and Iran, but between Tsarist Russia and the Gajar state. The Gajars were a Turkic state, headed by a Turkic dynasty. This has nothing to do with the state called Iran, which is dominated by Persian nationalism.

Second, Tsarist Russia occupied the Azerbaijani khanates which were on the north of the Araz River, those khanates were independent and had strong connections with the Gajar state, but were not part of this state.

With the agreements of Gulistan and Turkmenchay, Russia did not seize land from "Iran", Russia and the Gajars divided the Azerbaijani khanates - Russia north of Araz and the Gajars annexed the khanates those are on south of Araz.

During the occupation of the khanates which were on north of Araz, due to the centripetal tendencies of the Qajars, Fatali Shah could not send any troops. The only forces who fought the Russian troops were created by his son Abbas Mirza in a hurry and were called the "Azerbaijan Army". The Qajar state could not fulfil the request of the khans from their clans for help, and to get out of the situation, Abbas Mirza took this last resort and was forced to retreat.

For a thousand years - a whole thousand years, it was the Azerbaijani Turks who kept, protected and strengthened the state that you now call Iran: from the Seljuks until 1925.

In other words, the person trying to write a response in the official agency on the instructions of Tehran, if you turn to history, a completely different picture emerges: if historians should deal with history, we are ready for discussion!

From the first day, Iran did everything to not recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. Even on October 27, 1991, Ali Akbar Vilayati (then the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) officially announced that they would not recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. After only a few European countries and Israel recognized the independence of Azerbaijan, Iran was simply forced to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan on the same day as Armenia, on December 25.

Recognizing Azerbaijan's independence had already become a necessity, so Iran changed its mind within 2 months. Otherwise, Iran would not have immediately sent its foreign minister to Russia and said, "We are ready to do everything to protect the borders of the USSR."

As for Tehran's stories about Israel, let's remind the Iranian authorities once again:

Iran's anti-Muslim, anti-Islam and pro-Armenian policies forced Azerbaijan to establish serious relations with Israel. If neighbouring Iran would stop its policy of trampling on the rights and rights of its Muslim brothers and going out of its way to occupy it, Azerbaijan would never have developed its relations with Israel to such an extent.

Israel does not establish extensive commercial and political relations with Armenia because it occupies the territories of Azerbaijan; Israel is doing everything to strengthen Azerbaijan from a military point of view, its diaspora abroad plays an exceptional role in conveying the truths of Azerbaijan to the world; the children of this nation know Azerbaijan as a motherland, they have fought and are fighting for our territorial integrity. How should we treat Israel in return?

For the sake of Islamic unity and Muslim dignity, Iran should learn from Saudi Arabia. In general, Arabia did not even open an embassy in the invader Armenia for 30 years and did not establish diplomatic relations with Armenia because the territories of Azerbaijan were occupied.

This is the definition of principle position, dignity and compliance with international laws! Spending billions to keep the occupying country standing, and opposing the opening of the corridor at the moment, is both an obstacle to the November 10 declaration, which is considered an international agreement, and interfering in the internal affairs of states, as well as spreading division in the region.

Iran does not even recognize the simple rights of 40 million Azerbaijanis, does not allow them to study in their mother tongue, does not invest in Azerbaijani provinces, pursues a policy of assimilation, builds a regime based on force and coercion, creates a suitable situation for the massacre of Muslim brothers, the occupation of their lands, and after doing all of these things, it is now talking about Islamic solidarity and Muslim brotherhood. How reasonable is that?

This is hypocrisy, exploiting Islam for their own chauvinistic purposes.

M. Pakaein calls on Azerbaijan to "refrain from interfering in the affairs of neighbouring states", and calls on it to "accept the new reality", but sends an illegal squad to Khankendi, transports fuel with tankers, forces Armenia not to allow the opening of the Zangezur corridor, etc.

Like the Armenians, some Iranian experts are also used to theft: the term and concept of "acceptance of the new reality in the region" belong to Ilham Aliyev, Pakaein!

Not Tehran, but we also do not "hope", we are sure that Iran will accept the new geopolitical reality, will start to respect the rights of its people and neighboring peoples, finally will not interfere in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, and under the guise of religion will visit Azerbaijan and Georgia (among Azerbaijanis) will stop the export of separatist mullahs, and the export of billions of Iranian people to Armenia...

The Tehran regime is forced to do this because the Iranian people demand it: the Iranian people already know what kind of rich life the children of the ayatollahs live abroad with the hundreds of billions of funds stolen from them; The people of Iran already know very well that the children of the ayatollahs, who veil them, have parties and how openly they dress.

That day is very close - for 80 days, the nation has been going towards that day, Pakaein!