Iran TV presenter removed for threatening Azerbaijan?

The “temporary” removal of an anchor of Iran’s Ofogh TV for threatening the Republic of Azerbaijan with annexation has sparked nationalistic debates and heated disputes among Iranian netizens.

“There are some people who will become delusional if you don’t object to their claims …They had made such claims about [the Iranian provinces of] Azarbaijan before,” Hossein Hosseini said before a video regarding Azerbaijan’s relations with Israel was shown in a program called “Palestinian Horizons” on September 10.

Hosseini was referring to an Azerbaijani TV presenter’s suggestion of annexation of the whole of Iran rather than only parts that share a linguistic heritage with the Republic of Azerbaijan. “Let me tell you if you didn’t know … [The whole of] Iran is Azerbaijan,” the Azerbaijani anchor had said.

Hosseini went on to threaten that the Islamic Republic’s state television would soon be reporting the weather forecast for “northern Azarbaijan” if Iran decided to do so, implying annexation of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a territory belonging to Iran before the Russian Empire moved south into the Caucasus in the early 19th century and forced Iran to retreat.

He also shared a video clip of his remarks on Instagram, eliciting praise from his followers who called him a “real patriot”. Similar views were abundant on X. Some among Turkic-speaking Iranians who harbor strong anti-Armenian sentiments and are mostly concentrated in northwestern provinces disagreed.

“An [anchor] who presents [a program dedicated to the] Armenian Horizon instead of Palestinian Horizon, invites a famous Armenian lobbyist, insults the Shia population of a friendly and brotherly country, and speaks about annexing an independent country must be removed,” a netizen with a username suggesting he is a Turki speaker, the Turkic language spoken in Iran's northwestern regions and some other areas, posted on X.

In a tweet Saturday, journalist Vahid Khatami, claimed Iran's state television has decided to remove Hosseini from the program. The program was presented by another anchor last Saturday who said Hosseini would return to the program “after a short break”.

Amid the recent rhetorical rows between the Islamic Republic and Azerbaijan over Zangezur Corridor, the footage of the Azerbaijani anchor’s statements has angered many Iranian netizens who believe such claims are part of a much larger ‘Pan-Turkic plot’ to separate Iran's Turkic-speaking territories and form a Turkic empire extending from Turkey to Central Asia.

Baku has been demanding a corridor through southern Armenia to connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan enclave separated by Armenian territory which Iran has always opposed, arguing that it will eliminate Iran's direct access to Armenia, if the corridor is not controlled by Yerevan.

Moscow and Baku want Russia to monitor and control the corridor which can serve as a significant route for trade and energy transport between Asia and Europe, but Yerevan and Tehran are opposed to such a scheme and argue that even if a transport route were to be established, Armenia should have control over it.

The recently appointed Friday Imam of Tabriz, the capital of Iran's East Azarbaijan Province, has also commented on the Azerbaijani anchor’s remarks.

“Baku should stop the divisive remarks of idiots and hypocrites in its media. The stories they tell with slogans about a united Azarbaijan have far-reaching consequences. It will be to their own detriment if these stories begin to be told, not us. Laying claim to places [in the Iranian territory” is to your own detriment,” he said during Friday’s sermon.

Iran under the Qajar dynasty lost much of its territory in the north of the river Aras, including the present Azerbaijani territory then known as Aran, to the Russian Empire in the 19th century after long wars by signing the treaties of Golestan (1813) and Torkmanchay (1828) which many Iranians still refer to as “shameful”.

The Republic of Azerbaijan is often referred to as “northern Azarbaijan” by Iranian ultra-nationalists in the same way that ‘Pan-Turks’ on both sides of the Iran-Azerbaijan border refer to Iran's East and West Azarbaijan, and Ardabil provinces as “southern Azerbaijan”.