Mystery on the Caspian Sea

What do Iran (population 75 million) and the former Soviet republic, Azerbaijan (population 9.5 million), have in common? On paper, they should tear down the borders. Both nations also have significant oil and natural gas industries. In a universe where Shiite Muslims represent a slim 15% of the all practitioners of Islam (Sunnis virtually all the rest), these two countries reverse those numbers. Iran’s population is a whopping 95%+ Shiite, and of the 93% of Azerbaijanis (aka Azeris) who are Muslim, 85% of those are Shiite (hence 80% of the population). They were even once united in a single nation; they share a common history.

“The Azeri people once lived under the Persian Empire. In 1813, the Treaty of Gulistan after the first Russo-Persian war split the ethnic Azeri people into two… Those in the north lived under Russian, then Soviet rule - and are now in independent Azerbaijan. Those in the south lived under the Persian Empire - and are now in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” BBC World Report, August 11^th.

Since the Shiite faith is predicated on the most senior clerics’ interpretation of the Qur’an (and not a literal reading of that Book), and since most of the self-ordained senior clerics who profess to be able to make such interpretations (the top Ayatollahs) are now in Iran, you would think that the bonds between these two neighbors on the Caspian Sea are unbreakably strong. After all, there is even more reason for an alliance between these nations based on commonality of faith than the exceptionally strong relationship now growing between “new” Iraq (60% Shiite) and Iran.

You should also know that these Azerbaijan and Iran also share strong feelings about Israel, just not the same feelings. Azerbaijan – often accused of strongman-cronyism and concomitant corruption (and in constant conflict with neighboring Armenia in a border dispute) – is a very secular nation with a long history of very positive relations with Israel. Indeed, the heavily fortified Israeli embassy in the very modern coastal capital city of Baku (pictured above) – Iranian operatives are constantly seeking how to kill diplomats and destroy the embassy – is a mere four hour drive from the Iranian border to the south. “The Israeli embassy in Baku is an important, and occasionally a dangerous, outpost. In January 2012, Azerbaijan's government said it broke up an Iranian plot to kill the ambassador.

“‘I can tell you that the Iranians don't sit still for a second,’ says [Israeli Ambassador Michael] Lotem slowly, as he fiddles with his shirt sleeve. ‘But I'm not worried about my security. I have full confidence in the Azeri security services.’” BBC. This seems particularly strange since the Shiite nation of Iran appears to be dedicated to the destruction of Israel, while the Shiite nation of Azerbaijan not only recognizes the Jewish state, but in February of this year, they purchased $1.6 billion in highly sophisticated Israeli weapon systems.

But official “hatred” of Israel is only a factor of post-1979 Iranian politics. The date represents the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy that ruled Iran until the transition to the Islamic Republic that exists today. Even the current Iranian government proclaims safety for the few Jews that remain in the country (as protected “people of the Book”), an almost immeasurably tiny minority. During the Pahlavi years, an estimated 80,000 Jews lived in Iran, mostly in the capital city of Tehran, and that secular government also enjoyed strong relations with Israel. After 1979, estimates suggest that 85% of Iranian Jews emigrated, mostly to Israel and the United States. Wikipedia. In a strange way, the Shiites represented the persecuted minority of Islam, just as Jews represented a persecuted minority in the Western world. It seemed a natural fit at the time.

“From the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 until the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, Israel and Iran maintained close ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation after Turkey. Israel viewed Iran as a natural ally as a non-Arab power on the edge of the Arab world, in accordance with David Ben Gurion's concept of an alliance of the periphery. Israel had a permanent delegation in Tehran which served as an unofficial de facto embassy… After the Six Day War, Iran supplied Israel with a significant portion of its oil needs and Iranian oil was shipped to European markets via the joint Israeli-Iranian Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline. Brisk trade between the countries continued until 1979. Israeli construction firms and engineers were active in Iran. Iranian-Israeli military links and projects were kept secret, but they are believed to have been wide-ranging, for example the joint military … Project Flower (1977–79), an Iranian-Israeli attempt to develop a new missile.” Wikipedia

The Khomeini regime that toppled the Pahlavi monarchy demonized Israel as the “little Satan” and made anti-Zionism and the destruction of the Jewish state a cause célèbre. Not so Azerbaijan, which cemented its relationship with Israel after it gained independence in the post-Soviet era. While there are rumors that Azerbaijan has secretly agreed to allow Israel to use its airfields in a possible Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, both countries vehemently deny that such an agreement exists, and officially, Azerbaijan believes such a strike would be disastrous for the entire region.

Despite the religious affinity, the Azeris truly mistrust the religious zealots who run Iran. The visual differences are astounding. Religious police roam Iran looking for unattached and inappropriately clad women… and the streets of Tehran sport dark figures – women dressed in unflattering Chadors, heads fully covered – moving like zombies through the streets. The view in Azerbaijan is quite different: “A lone shop in the centre of Baku, called simply The Muslim Shop, shows how rare the public expression of Islam is in the capital…. In the evenings, restaurants serve Turkish-made beer to customers in Fountains Square. Most women do not wear headscarves. The centre of town has a McDonalds, a Mothercare and a Versace shop. Baku feels more like Tel Aviv than Tehran. The government is determined to stop its Islamic neighbour from encroaching."

“‘Azerbaijan naturally rejects the Iranian Islamic influence because it is perceived as a threat to the very nation state,’ says Leila Alieva, the Director of the independent Centre for National and International Studies in Baku.” BBC. The lessons for Americans can be profound as an anti-Muslim sentiment of mistrust seems to creep across America, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee to New York City. It appears, my fellow Americans, that this mistrust most certainly cannot be justified on the basis of a belief in Islam.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are too quick to reach assumptions about political threats based simply on religious beliefs.