Foreigners flee Iran to Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia

More than 700 foreigners living in Iran have crossed into neighbouring Azerbaijan and Armenia since Israel began striking the country last week, government officials in Baku and Yerevan said on Tuesday.

The Caucasus countries border Iran’s northwest, with the closest crossing into Azerbaijan around 500 kilometres from Tehran by road.

“Since the start of the military escalation between Israel and Iran, more than 600 citizens of 17 countries have been evacuated from Iran via Azerbaijan,” a government source told reporters on Tuesday.

The evacuees, who crossed the border via the Astara checkpoint on the Caspian Sea coast, are being transported to Baku airport and “flown to their home countries on international flights,” the source said.

Among those evacuated are citizens of post-Soviet countries Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, along with others from Germany, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Portugal, the United States, China and Vietnam.

Later on Tuesday, Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada told reporters that Baku “is reviewing requests from more than 1,200 foreign nationals from 51 countries seeking to leave Iran” via Azerbaijan.

“Border-crossing permits are being arranged,” he added.

Azerbaijan shut its land borders in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has kept them closed ever since.

But the official said that “in light of the evacuation need, Azerbaijan has temporarily opened its border for those leaving Iran.”

India also evacuated 110 of its citizens from Iran through Armenia, Ani Badalyan, Yerevan’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, told journalists.

Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, said “many Iranian citizens who had previously been in Turkey and Russia have returned to Iran via Armenia.”

“Efforts are ongoing to facilitate the return of Iranian citizens amid flight cancellations,” Sobhani said in comments translated into Armenian at a news conference in Yerevan.

Poland’s foreign ministry said it would evacuate part of its embassy staff in Tehran via Baku.

“We have decided to evacuate or support the departure of staff who do not need to remain in the country, so-called non-essential personnel,” Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys told reporters.

Agence France-Presse