The majority of Armenia's population is Christian, but it is closer to the Shia Muslim country of Iran.
The majority of Azerbaijan's population is Shia Muslims, but close to Iran, not Israel.
The foreign ministers of Iran and Armenia met in Tehran on Monday. Iran's Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdolahian spoke to Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on bilateral relations.
The Foreign Minister of Armenia is on a two-day visit to Iran. There was also talk between the two countries about connecting the road between Iran to Armenia. Iran and Armenia share a long border and the two countries also have old relations.
Armenians also live in large numbers in Iran. According to the news agency Reuters, due to the lack of Covid vaccine in Iran, a large number of people of Iran had got the vaccine in Armenia itself.
Azerbaijan is also a neighbor of Iran. Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought each other this year over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Iran remained neutral during the war and tried to mediate between the two. But people say that Iran was secretly helping Armenia.
tensions with Iran
Tensions have increased in Iran and Azerbaijan recently. Tension has increased due to many reasons. Azerbaijan conducted military exercises with Turkey and Pakistan at a distance of 500 km from the Iranian border.
In addition, Azerbaijan closed the way for Iranian truck drivers to go to Armenia. Two truck drivers from Iran were also taken into custody. Apart from this, Iran is also troubled by the increasing closeness of Azerbaijan and Israel.
In response to all this, on October 1, Iran started its military exercises on the North-West Frontier. Within a few days, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had also deployed military equipment in the area. After this, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said that he was surprised by Iran's military exercises.
Ilham had said, "Every country has the right to conduct military exercises in its territory. It is his sovereign right. But why is Iran doing it now and why is it doing it on our border? Iran has conducted such a military exercise for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Iranian officials have said the military exercises are their sovereign right, but analysts believe Iran is troubled by Israel's presence in Azerbaijan. There is a 700 km long border between Iran and Azerbaijan.
In a meeting with Azerbaijan's new ambassador in Tehran on 30 September, Iran's foreign minister said, "We cannot tolerate the presence of the Jewish nation next to us and its activities against our national security. We will take the necessary steps against it.
Why friendship between Azerbaijan and Israel?
Azerbaijan is closer to Israel than Iran. Israel and Azerbaijan have had diplomatic relations since 1992. Diplomatic relations were established between Azerbaijan and Israel only six months after the declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
Israel and Azerbaijan have a common goal: tracking Iran and political Islam. In February 2012, Israel handed over $1.6 billion in weapons to Azerbaijan. Even after that, Israel supplied weapons several times.
Michael Lotem, who was Israel's ambassador to Azerbaijan in 2012, said, "I think Azerbaijan and our way of looking at the world are similar. We also have some of the same problems. We need a Muslim country that is open, friendly, progressive, and understands the importance of Israel.
In the same year, the American magazine Foreign Policy said that Azerbaijan and Israel had come closer than people had expected. According to the magazine report, if there is a situation of war in action against Iran's nuclear program, then Israel has made an agreement with Azerbaijan regarding its airspace.
If so, it is being seen as a strategic victory for Israel, but Israel denied it. The then Ambassador of Israel to Azerbaijan had said that the bilateral relationship between the two countries is more than this.
The majority of Azerbaijan's population is Shia Muslims, but the government here is considered secular. The only Muslim shop in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.
In the evening, Turkish beer is served to customers at the restaurant in Baku's Fountains Square. Most women don't even wear a hijab. Baku feels more like Tel Aviv than Tehran.
Leila Aliyeva, director of the Independent Center for National and International Studies in Baku, told the BBC: "Azerbaijan has naturally rejected Iranian Islamic influence as a threat to the nation-state. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, has a good relationship with the Jewish community.
But there are people in Azerbaijan who disagree about their government's friendship with Israel. Ilgar Ibrahimoglu is a cleric and he is running a movement for a bigger role of Islam in Azerbaijan.
He told the BBC, "Iran is a Muslim country and we have a close neighbor. I will not say anything more than this. Even if it was a live interview, I would have said the same thing for five hours.
But Ilgar speaks aggressively on Israel, "Azerbaijan should not be friends with a country that is spreading state-sponsored terrorism against the Palestinians. Israel cannot defeat Iran. He cannot win in Lebanon or Gaza and Iran.
Ilman Abdullayev is a former spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan. He told the BBC, "Azerbaijan has always been known for its modernity. We are secular people. You will know that Azerbaijan is the first secular country of the Muslim countries of the East. In such a situation, keeping in view our interests, we have developed relations with many countries. Be it Israel or an Islamic country.
The relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan is very complex. This is not only because the two countries share a long border, but it is also because the heritage of both is also the same. The Azeris were at one time under the Persian Empire. After the First Russo-Persian War in 1813, the Gulistan Agreement was reached and the Azeris separated.
Those who were in the north remained under Soviet rule and are now living in Azerbaijan. Those in the south were in the Persian Empire and are now living in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today, about 10 million Azeris live in Azerbaijan, but more Azeris live in Iran.
It is estimated that between one and 20 million Azeris are in the whole of Iran and this is one-fifth of the total population of Iran. The desire to reunite among the Azeris is gaining ground once again, and Iran fears this.
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