Azerbaijan rebukes Iran over ‘insult’

Tehran’s charge d’affaires has been summoned by the Foreign Ministry in Baku after comments made during a religious ceremony in Iran sparked widespread condemnation

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Baku after Iranian television broadcast a religious ceremony where presumed insults against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were voiced. 

According to the statement shared by the ministry on Wednesday, the charge d’affaires of the Iranian embassy in Azerbaijan, Seyyed Jafar Aghayi Marian, was handed “a strong protest” note over “insulting statements” against Azerbaijan and its president.  

Baku also expressed strong disapproval over what it calls the “anti-Azerbaijani sentiment” across the neighboring state. The Foreign Ministry claimed that “slanderous and biased information” about Azerbaijan allegedly circulating in Iranian media contradicts “the spirit of bilateral relations, goals and tasks” set by the nations.  

The event in question was held in Iranian city of Ardabil on December 29. 

According to a statement from the Ardabil Grand Mosque as cited in local media, “an individual unexpectedly made statements motivated by emotions that belittled certain foreign figures” and were contrary to the approved program. In a clip widely shared online and presumably showing a part of the ceremony, a speaker is seen criticizing Aliyev, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their foreign policy.  

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The Iranian authorities have confirmed the diplomat was summoned and called the statements in question “ill-considered,” stating that Tehran’s fundamental policy is to expand friendly relations with neighboring states, especially with Azerbaijan. 

“The protest of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was related to the thoughtless and inappropriate statements of a person at a ceremony in one of the northwestern cities of our country,” assistant to the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry and head of the Eurasian department of the ministry, Mojtaba Demirchilu, said as cited by the IRNA news agency.  

“Such statements have nothing to do with the official position of Iran’s leadership,” Demirchilu emphasized.  

In July, Azerbaijan reopened its embassy in Tehran and resumed consular operations four months later. It was shut down in January 2023 following an attack on the building that was described by Baku as “a terrorist act.” An Iranian probe into the accident suggested that it was driven by “personal and family-related issues.”