Factors Influencing the Foreign Relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the independence of the countries under its control, The Islamic Republic of Iran, on its northern borders, became neighbors with new countries. Azerbaijan is one of those countries that is located in the Caucasus region and declared independence on August 30, 1991, and the Islamic Republic of Iran recognized that country in the same year (1991) and established its relations with this country. During the years of the establishment of relations between the two countries, in spite of the religious and cultural commonalities, as well as the numerous opportunities and economic and security factors that could have exacerbated the interactions between the two sides, These relationships have been practically at a low level, and these joint factors not only did not increase interactions, but in some cases also led to conflicts and tensions between the two countries. According to the background, the question of this research is what factors influenced relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan? The hypothesis of this paper is that the factors affecting the relations between the two countries, Influenced by the negative attitudes of both countries towards each other and the involvement of transnational nations. Therefore, this research has sought to answer this question by adopting a constructive approach and using a descriptive-analytical method. The data collection in this research is done with library and internet tools.

Keywords: Republic of Iran, Republic of Azerbaijan, Bilateral Relations, Structuralism.