No problems with the neighbors

Open to Iran's regime and opponents of the regime: The Iranian-Armenian border, seen from Meghri, Armenia, five kilometers east of the Nurduz-Agarak border crossing

Armenia shares a 27-mile-long border with Iran, with the only border crossing at Agarak, a dusty Armenian town on a copper mine on the Aras River. On the other side of the river rise the desert-like Iranian mountains, nearby is the Iranian village of Nurduz. Dozens of truck drivers wait in front of the border crossing for their cargo to be cleared.

In the Syunik province in southeastern Armenia, Iranians are a common sight: tourists visit Armenian churches or go hiking in the green mountains, trucks with Iranian license plates struggle up the steep winding roads towards the north. And Iranian construction workers are working on the construction sites of the North-South Corridor – a nearly 600-kilometer highway that, when finally completed, will run from Georgia to the Iranian border in southern Armenia.

Many Iranians travel to Armenia during the Persian New Year's Nowruz at the end of March to be able to celebrate wild parties away from the strict eyes of the Iranian religious police.

Occasionally you hear suspicious comments from Armenians: The Iranians, who can enter the border without a visa for 90 days thanks to a bilateral agreement from 2016, are "actually Turks" - meaning members of Iran's Azerbaijani minority, who live mainly in the border area with Armenia.

You can also meet Iranians in Yerevan, but in autumn you hear the Persian language less often in the Armenian capital, which is characterized by glittering new buildings. On numerous websites, when searching for Iranian places in Armenia, the first thing that comes up is Yerevan's Blue Mosque, a Shiite mosque built in the 18th century under Persian rule, which is used as a museum under Soviet control and has been used again as a mosque since Armenian independence in 1991, the only one in Christian Armenia. However, hardly any Iranians are seen or heard during a visit to the complex, which was restored with Iranian state money and loaned to the Islamic Republic of Iran for 99 years in 2015. Isolated propaganda posters from the Iranian regime complement the cultural and historical exhibits in the mosque and indicate the influence of the Iranian state.

In addition to Yerevan's usual tourist attractions, more frequent destinations for Iranian visitors are the city's bars and clubs. Many Iranians travel to Armenia during the Persian New Year's Nowruz at the end of March to be able to celebrate wild parties away from the strict eyes of the Iranian religious police.

Armenia's good relations with Iran, which enable the presence of Iranians, are by no means an expression of ideological proximity to the Iranian regime, but simply a foreign policy necessity. Armenia is an import-dependent landlocked country without its own access to the sea. Turkey and Azerbaijan continue to keep their long borders with Armenia closed despite peace negotiations, meaning that goods can only be imported via Iran and Georgia. Armenia also has an energy partnership with Iran, which has been supplying gas via a pipeline since 2009 and receiving electricity from Armenia in return.

Former Armenian MP Tatevik Hajrapetyan summarizes Armenia's Iran policy in an interview with Jungle World as follows: »Armenian relations with Iran and Georgia are vital for Armenia's survival. We shouldn't have any problems with them either." Armenia's prime minister therefore attended the funeral of the former Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the Iran War. In addition, Armenia's government generally never comments on domestic political developments in Iran, said Hajrapetyan. We already have a lot of problems, so we shouldn't bring any more into the country.

Turkey and Azerbaijan continue to keep their long borders with Armenia closed despite peace negotiations, meaning that goods can only be imported via Iran and Georgia

The Iranian regime's deadly campaign of repression against the protest movement in January and the outbreak of the Iran War are testing Iranian-Armenian relations. Since then, border crossings from Iran have increased significantly. According to the UN, over 83,000 Iranians entered Armenia from February to August; However, 81,200 of them left the country for Iran or third countries, which the Armenian government is quite happy with given its neutral stance towards Iran. Iranians who took part in protests against the regime's deadly campaign of repression near the Iranian embassy in Yerevan in January were interrogated by Armenia's secret service (NSS) after the Iranian ambassador condemned Armenia for authorizing the protests. Hajrapetyan says: »The Armenian government and the police ended the issue very quickly. They didn’t want the protests to take place.”

The few thousand Iranians who want or have to stay in Armenia, for example because the Iranian regime revoked their citizenship because of their political work and made them stateless, have a difficult time in Armenia. The cost of living is very high compared to the average monthly gross wage of around 700 euros. Affordable housing is rare, especially in densely populated Yerevan. Finding work is also difficult, with unemployment reaching 13 percent in 2025. Integration is also complicated due to the lack of language courses for the sophisticated Armenian language, which is little spoken outside the country. Only Armenia's IT sector offers opportunities for Iranian skilled workers, whose work in Iran is repeatedly hampered by the regime's long internet blocks in response to protests.

However, migration to Armenia is unusual in the history of both countries. Historically, migration has gone in the other direction. Large parts of the territory of modern-day Armenia belonged to Persian empires for centuries, from that of the ancient Achaemenids to that of the Qajars in the 18th and 19th centuries. Above all, however, there has been a significant Armenian minority on what is now Iran since forced relocation by the state in the early 17th century. Later, many Armenians fled the Ottoman-Persian wars and later massacres in Turkey and the Ottoman genocide to Persia, as Iran was called until 1935.

Today, most of the up to 80,000 Iranian Armenians live in Iran's capital Tehran and its own villages, in districts of Isfahan and in Bourvari in central Iran. However, their situation has worsened since the Islamist regime came to power in 1979. In the theocratic system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Armenians are a recognized minority as Christians, but are discriminated against by the state. Because of this and because of the poor economic situation in Iran, around three quarters of Iranian Armenians have emigrated to Western countries since 1979. Some of the Iranians who settle permanently in Armenia therefore come from the Armenian minority themselves.

Due to discrimination and the poor economic situation in Iran, around three quarters of Iranian Armenians have emigrated to Western countries since 1979. Some of the Iranians who settle permanently in Armenia therefore come from the Armenian minority themselves.

In addition to the Iran war, the peace process with Turkey and Azerbaijan that began in 2025 and has since stalled is also straining Armenia's relations with Iran. As part of negotiations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, the USA has planned the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (Tripp), a trade corridor between Azerbaijan and Turkey proposed by US President Donald Trump, which should also run through Armenian territory in the Syunik province and thus connect these three countries economically.

The Iranian regime sees the project as competition to the north-south corridor through Armenia and Georgia and an attempt to further isolate Iran. In addition, Iran has so far levied taxes on the traffic that Azerbaijan routes through Iranian territory to supply its exclave Nakhichevan. The mullahs' regime is also bothered by the participation of US companies in the Tripp infrastructure projects. Azerbaijan's regime, in turn, has, since the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani-Turkish preliminary agreement in August 2025, set new conditions for the success of the peace process and thus also the Tripp project, thus stalling it, entirely in Iran's interest.

Real understanding in the South Caucasus would ultimately weaken Iranian influence. The persistently precarious foreign policy situation in Armenia is therefore entirely in the interests of the Iranian regime.

Paul Simon contributed to this text.