Expert calls for strategic partnership between Armenia, Iran – Panorama

Turkologist Varuzhan Geghamyan stresses the necessity to take relations between Armenia and Iran to a brand new stage of strategic partnership.

His feedback got here after Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned towards makes an attempt to “block” the Armenian-Iranian border at a gathering with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

“If there’s a coverage to dam the border between Iran and Armenia, the Islamic Republic will oppose it since this border has been a communication route for hundreds of years,” Khamenei mentioned.

He made an analogous assertion at a non-public assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Islamic Republic is not going to tolerate insurance policies or plans that result in the closing of the Iran-Armenia border,” Khamenei mentioned in a tweet, individually.

“Remarkably, Syunik stays Armenian primarily because of Iran. Thus, Armenian-Iranian relations needs to be taken to a brand new strategic stage, making it one of many foundations of our new safety structure,” Geghamyan wrote on Fb on Wednesday.

Additionally, he condemned the Armenian authorities for handing over a bit of the prevailing Armenia-Iran freeway to Azerbaijan.

“As a substitute of deepening cooperation with Iran, Armenia’s capitulant authorities ceded the one street connecting Armenia and Iran to Azerbaijan, and there’s no new [alternative] street,” the professional mentioned.