“Western Azerbaijan is the name of one of the provinces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it cannot be used for any other geographical area, especially if it implies a territorial claim to Armenia,” Sobhani told a news conference.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has regularly used the phrase “Western Azerbaijan” in the context of his demands for Armenia to ensure the return of Azerbaijanis who lived in “our historical lands” until the late 1980s. Aliyev has said that this is a necessary condition for peace between the two South Caucasus states. Yerevan has rejected these statements as a claim to Armenian territory.
Baku managed to include its demands in a joint declaration adopted by the foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states on June 21 at a meeting in Turkey. The Armenian Foreign Ministry denounced the declaration.
Incidentally, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also attended the OIC meeting. He apparently did not make any public statements objecting to the pro-Azerbaijani language of the declaration.
Sobhani insisted on June 17 that despite the large-scale military conflict with Israel, Tehran remains committed to Armenia’s territorial integrity and opposed to an Azerbaijani land corridor that would pass through a key Armenian region.