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http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2013/01/19/christian-armenia-and-islamic-iran-an-unusual-partnership-explained/
Christian Armenia and Islamic Iran: An Unusual Partnership
Explained
by Harout Harry Semerdjian
January 19, 2013
While the West has recently tightened its sanctions against Iran, its only Christian neighbor has taken a
dif f erent approach towards the Islamic Republic. Political constraints and lack of options have coerced
landlocked Armenia to adopt a policy dissimilar to the Wests f or one basic reasonsurvival.
Armenia is located in the South Caucasusone of the most volatile regions in the world, where East
meets West and North meets South. It lies at the crossroads of Islam and Christianity. This is where
NATO and the USSR once drew their boundary, but where war and history have maintained closed
borders even af ter the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This is also where expansive oil and gas
pipelines traverse, supplying Europe with energy resources f rom the hydrocarbon-rich Caspian Sea.
Of all the countries in the region, geography and history have been the cruelest to Armenia. The country
is blockaded by two of its f our neighborsTurkey to the West and Azerbaijan to the East and
Southwestaccounting f or some eighty percent of the countrys boundaries. Its border with an of ten
unstable Georgia remains open to the North as well as a tiny 22-mile Southern border with Irantermed
as a lif eline f or the culturally-rich yet resource-poor country of 3 million.
Despite a current cease-f ire, Armenia is technically still at war with Azerbaijan over the region of
Nagorno-Karabakh, where a de-f acto independent republic was proclaimed in 1992 af ter Armenian f orces
established control over the territory and several districts surrounding it. As a result, Turkey also severed
ties with Armenia and closed its border in solidarity with its ethnic kin, the Azeris. Armenias relations with
Turkey also remain tense over the 1915 Armenian genocide, when nearly the entire Armenian population
of the Ottoman Empire, two million people, was wiped out through massacres and deportations. Turkey
still denies the genocide despite historical evidence and international pressure to acknowledge the
crimes committed by its predecessors.
Given Irans historic rivalry with Turkey and Russia f or inf luence in the Caucasus, its strained relations
with Azerbaijan over that countrys rejection of an Islamic order, and its international isolation, Iran has
recently enhanced its economic, political and cultural relations with Armenia. Additionally, northern Iran is
inhabited by over 15 million Azeris (double the population of the Republic of Azerbaijan), driving Irans
concern of a potential secessionist movement. Wary of this threat, a weak Azerbaijan is in Irans best
interest and Armenia becomes an important leverage point in this regard. Hence, we observe an unusual
international relations predicament in which the interests of an Islamic republic coincide with those of a
Christian state at the expense of another Muslim country. In response, leaders of both Iran and Armenia
are quick to point out the historic relations between the two countries that span several thousand years,
as well as the presence of a substantial Armenian community in Iran numbering 150,000. Two seats in the
Iranian Parliament are appointed f or Armenian representation and northern Iran, once a part of several
Armenian kingdoms, is also home to ancient Armenian monasteries designated as UNESCO World
Heritage Sites that enjoy national and international protection in stark contrast to some three
thousand Armenian churches in Turkey that f ell victim to cultural destruction during and af ter 1915.
Ultimately, f or Armenia, embracing Iran becomes a matter of basic survival, and f or Iran, tiny Armenia
becomes an outlet f or global reconnection and a means to put pressure on Azerbaijan. Meanwhile,
Armenia has made it clear that this relationship does not come at the expense of its relations with the
West or Russia. Russia remains Armenias strategic ally and Armenia has very warm and developing
relations with the United States and the EU. Large and inf luential Armenian Diaspora communities,
particularly in the United States and France, become an important bridge between their ancestral and
adopted homelands and act as catalysts f or Westernization. Over the years, Armenia has espoused a
policy of European orientation and integration and hopes to become an EU member in time. As a means
of engaging regional and global powers without having to pick and choose alliances, Armenia has
caref ully craf ted a policy of complementarity to survive and navigate dif f icult geopolitical terrain.
Last year marked the apex of Iranian-Armenian relations when the two countries embarked on important
economic projects, including the construction of a hydro-electric plant on their shared bordera
welcome development f or energy-hungry Armenia. There are talks now of constructing an ambitious
railway system and an oil pipeline between the two countries. Both projects could eventually be extended
to Europe through Georgia, which will help alleviate Armenias isolation in the region. American tolerance
of these growing ties still remains to be seen. Thus f ar, the United States has been cautious but largely
understanding; however this could change in the f uture.
To assist Armenia in expanding its options in the region, the Obama administration must put pressure on
Turkey to open its border with Armenia immediately and without preconditions. This would ensure
Armenias access to Europe and beyond through Turkish territory. The United States should also
enhance its ef f orts in bringing f orth a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conf lict peacef ully and
resolutely. Furthermore, the United States should assist Armenian integration in regional economic and
transportation projects and to energize U.S.-Armenia economic relations via a bilateral Trade and
Investment Framework Agreement. The United States will thus help Armenia reduce its dependence on
Iran by ensuring the countrys integration with the West. Armenia and its people want no less and need
American and European assistance to achieve this objective. Otherwise, Armenia will have no choice but
to continue looking to Iran.