Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend D.Khatinoglu / The President of Iran broke off his visit to Armenia and returned to Tehran in order not to complicate the Iranian-Turkish relations, said the Iranian politician, Alireza Nourizadeh.
The State Head of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arrived in Armenia on 22 October. However, Ahmadinejad broke off his visit and returned to Iran, not laying a wreath before the monument of so-called 'Armenian genocide'.
The visit of the Iranian President to Yerevan at the time of discussions in the US Congress over the so-called 'Armenian genocide' may damage the Iranian-Turkish and Iranian-Azerbaijani relations, the politician reported to Trend on 23 October by telephone from London.
"Establishing close political and economic relations with Armenia, Ahmadinejad may bring harms to the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations in the discussions regarding the legal status of Caspian Sea," Nourizadeh said.
According to him, in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran has always unambiguously supported Armenia. Iran organized provocations in Azerbaijan during and after the war. There are facts that the military groups 'Sepah', 'Shimali Djeysh Almehdi' carried out espionage and provocations in the territory of Azerbaijan. Due to 'Sepah', 16 people were arrested by Azerbaijan's Ministry of National Security.
During his visit to Armenia, Ahmadinejad repeatedly highlighted the expression 'Armenian genocide'. According to him, each year, actions are held in Iran in this regard.
"Iranian president's using the expression 'Armenian genocide' may bring serious harms to the Iranian-Turkish and Iranian-Azerbaijani relations. Despite this, Ahmadinejad states that his words have not been directed against any countries," the politician said.
In addition, Nourizadeh expressed attitude towards Ahmadinejad's plans to construct a pipeline to Europe via Armenia. "In my opinion, using the territory of Turkey for this purpose is more beneficial for Iran. In addition, he spokes of plans to construct pipelines via Azerbaijan, Armenia, Pakistan and Turkey. These plans require billions. Iran itself has not such amounts of finance and no foreign company is willing to invest in these plans. Thus, they will never be realized," the politician said.