Azerbaijanis Press for Peace Between Iran, US

While Iran's April 4 decision to release 15 captured British soldiers made headlines worldwide, in Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic's northern neighbor, news consumers had a more immediate concern: the need to preserve their country's neutrality in the face of ongoing hostility between Tehran and the West.

For both cultural and economic reasons, relations with Iran, which accounted for 30 percent of Azerbaijan's trade turnover in 2006, have long been important for Azerbaijan, whose population, like Iran's, is predominantly Shi'a. The Azerbaijani government has consistently called for a diplomatic resolution to the differences between Iran and the United States, and asserted its own strict neutrality in the dispute.

"We do not want new conflicts in the region and we insist that the issue must be solved by diplomatic means," the Voice of America quoted Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov as saying on March 19, just prior to a trip to Washington, DC. "New conflict may turn into disaster for the region."

Nonetheless, that emphasis on the middle ground appears to have done little to assuage many ordinary Azerbaijanis' growing sense of unease. Concerns worsened on March 30, when the Realniy Azerbaijan (Real Azerbaijan) weekly, the country's largest selling newspaper, published what it claimed was a list of Azerbaijani sites Iran intends to bomb if it is attacked by the United States. No source was named for the report, but the alleged sites named – ranging from the presidential administration to British Petroleum's office in Baku – set off panicked discussions among readers.

In part, the reactions are aggravated by a growing tendency among Azerbaijani media and many citizens to discuss the topic of a US military attack against Iran not as a question of "whether?", but of "when?" and "how?" – this despite repeated denials by American officials that plans exist for such an operation.

"Iran is surrounded by three US aircraft carriers and 29 others ships and US military bases," commented political analyst Vafa Guluzade on the Day.az website. "And the fact that in this situation the country is not heeding UN resolutions makes war unavoidable."

Some of the strongest private reactions to the issue can be heard among Azerbaijan's growing number of Muslim faithful. "No Muslim would support destroying a Muslim country. But Allah supports Iran," commented Meshadi Alemdar, mullah of the Blue Mosque. Tofig Guliyev, a former professional wrestler who worships at the Teze Pir mosque, agrees. "We are witnessing a new crusade against the Muslim world. Why is Israel allowed to do everything, while Iranians cannot even think about a peaceful nuclear industry?"

Muslim community leaders, however, have been careful to stress that they are not choosing sides between the US and Iran. The topic of Iran's nuclear research or likely US responses is not one that is openly discussed or the subject of public prayers or sermons in either of Baku's two largest Shi'a mosques, Teze Pir and the Blue Mosque. "We support a peaceful resolution of the problem," Allashukur Pashazade, head of Azerbaijan's Caucasus Muslims Department, said in an April 3 statement to journalists, Turan news agency reported.

Regions of Azerbaijan with the closest ties to Iran – the southern region of Lankaran and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic exclave – share that desire for neutrality.

Within Nakhchivan, a territory sandwiched between Armenia and Iran, residents' largest fear is what a US attack on Iran would mean for their energy supplies, and for their communications with Azerbaijan, noted Malahat Nasibova, a Nakhchivan-based human rights champion and freelance journalist. Iran provides 100 percent of the region's gas supplies and meets 30 percent of its electricity needs. It also provides the only ground route linking the exclave with the rest of Azerbaijan.

"The biggest concerns have socio-economic roots," Nasibova said. "It is understandable. Thanks to Iran, natural gas appeared in Nakhchivan again in 2005 after [an absence of] 15 years."

Meanwhile, in the southern region of Lankaran, which borders directly on Iran and has close cultural and trade links with the country, most residents' immediate concern is that Azerbaijan simply maintains the status quo, noted one journalist.

"If it would have happened five years ago or even before, the picture would be different," said Bakhtiyar Akhundov, a television reporter based in the region. "[At that time] Iranian emissaries enjoyed serious influence and conducted propaganda in the local mosques. However, law-enforcement agencies have undertaken [special] measures during the last years and there is