Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Skeptical About Iranian Annexation Call

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov

BAKU -- Azerbaijan's foreign minister says he does not believe the recent call by a group of Iranian lawmakers for the annexation of part of Azerbaijan should be taken seriously.

"I believe the Iranian government would never support senseless ideas that would never produce any results," Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists in Baku.

Mamadyarov's statement was the first government-level reaction to this week's media reports that Iranian lawmakers have been drafting a bill calling for a revision of the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828.

They say their aim is the annexation of southern Azerbaijan by Iran.

The treaty was signed between Tehran and St. Petersburg after the Persians lost a war with the Russian Empire and were forced to recognize Russian control over what is now Armenia and Azerbaijan.