ArmInfo. The prospect of the acquiring ground communication between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia (the so-called Zangezur corridor, Ed. note) is fraught with new threats for Iran, since the implementation of these plans by Ankara and Baku will lead to the formation of a completely new security environment.
Victor Nadein-Raevsky, senior researcher at IMEMO RAS, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"Tehran understands very well that the "corridor" is in reality the most important component of the Turkish "Great Turan" program, which simply cannot but cause concern not only in Iran, but also in all other neighboring countries of Turkey. In this light, behind the current tension between Iran and Azerbaijan, without a doubt, the interests of significantly more powerful players than Baku are visible, "he said. Among the latter, in addition to Turkey, the orientalist considers Israel and the United States. And the breaking of the previous status quo around the Karabakh conflict, according to him, has significantly increased Turkish influence in the region, the degree of Azerbaijan's cooperation with Israel, the toughness of Baku's positions, and, accordingly, the challenges to Iran's national security. And in light of the concentration of Turkish and Israeli military in the immediate vicinity of Iran, Tehran, in the opinion of an orientalist, has no choice but to strengthen its army and build up its military presence at the borders with Azerbaijan.
In the opinion of Nadein-Raevsky, in the perspective of the development of the regional situation, a lot depends on the approaches and decisions of small countries, especially those involved in the actively discussed 3 + 3 format, as well as the position of the United States regarding this, regional format proposed by Turkey. In any case, the orientalist is not inclined to predict a particular aggravation of the situation in the region. However, the most complex transformations, chaotic confrontation for the redistribution of zones of influence in the region, according to his forecasts, will continue.
"Given the contradiction in the status quo of the 44-day war in the South Caucasus to the interests of Iran, tensions on its borders are likely to remain. There is no doubt that the current geopolitical alignment in the region is extremely problematic for Tehran. Iranian diplomacy will try to overcome it by politics within the framework of the nuclear deal, special relations with the Russian Federation and inviting new Asian countries to the region, "the orientalist predicts.