MFA: Attack on Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran is a planned terrorist attack

Baku/06.02.23/Turan: On Monday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry held a briefing on the terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran on January 27, where the head of the security of the diplomatic mission, Orkhan Askerov, was killed, and two of his subordinates, Vasif Tagiyev and Mahir Imanov, were wounded.  The head of the press service of the Foreign Ministry, Aykhan Hajizade, in chronological order, informed about the circumstances of the attack, showing that it was a planned terrorist attack.

So, on the morning of January 27, the terrorist drove past the embassy twice - at 08:05 and 08:24 in order to choose a convenient moment for the attack. At around 08:32, when two embassy employees entered the building of the diplomatic mission, the terrorist crashed his car into a parked car of the embassy.

He calculated that the employees would come out to the noise, and taking advantage of the opened door, burst inside, opening fire from a machine gun. At the same time, the terrorist gave a sign to the Iranian policeman, who was on duty at the door of the embassy.

Two minutes later, at 08.34, an Iranian police car appeared in front of the embassy, which left the territory a few seconds later after a short conversation with a policeman who was standing at the embassy.

Meanwhile, the terrorist was firing in the embassy building for 4 minutes from 08.32 to 08.36. As a result, Orkhan Askerov died on the spot from his wounds. Another security officer Mahir Imanov received severe wounds in his arm and leg. Another employee, Vasif Tagiyev, entered into hand-to-hand combat with the terrorist in order to disarm him.

At the same time, the terrorist continued to shoot and wounded Tagiyev in the shoulder. Nevertheless, Tagiyev managed to snatch the store from the terrorist's machine gun. After that, the attacker pulled out a Colt pistol from his pocket and this time wounded Tagiyev in the jaw. Despite two injuries, Tagiyev managed to push the terrorist out of the building and close the door.

Despite all this, the Iranian policeman at the door of the embassy did not intervene,  and even left the territory. In the meantime, the terrorist took out a spare magazine from his pocket and inserted it into the machine gun, twice making a sign with his hand to someone. He opened fire at the doors of the embassy, as well as at the windows of the upper floors of the building, where family members of the embassy employees lived.

After that, he doused the wheels of the embassy car with gasoline and set it on fire. Then he took a sledgehammer from the trunk of his car and broke the doors and broke into the embassy again. Shooting from a machine gun, he tried to climb to the second floor. However, guard Tagiyev hit him on the head with a fire extinguisher and wounded him. After that, the terrorist left the embassy. Coming out, he again doused the car with embassy gasoline and set it on fire, but set himself on fire. Only after that, Iranian police and firemen appeared in front of the embassy.

However, the police were in no hurry to detain the terrorist, entered into a conversation with him. The terrorist continued to threaten the diplomats, shouting that he would "kill everyone." The police did not react to this and he put the sledgehammer back in the trunk of his car.

Moreover, the terrorist called the employee of the embassy Tagiyev to leave and when he went down, he again tried to attack him. Only after that, the police detained the attacker and took him out of the territory. The camera also caught footage of a masked man taking unknown objects from the terrorist's car and leaving the territory.

“The choice of a day off in Iran for the attack, the presence of an automatic weapon with a spare magazine and a pistol, an incendiary sweep, and no intervention by the Iranian police, give grounds to assert that this was a planned terrorist act,” Hajizadeh said. He rejected the allegations of the Iranian press that the terrorist's actions were allegedly connected with the alleged search for his wife, who either hid in the embassy or left for Azerbaijan, Hajizadeh said.

There are no facts to support this. According to Hajizade, there were no appeals from the Iranian side to the embassy on this issue. To this day, the Iranian side has not responded to Azerbaijan's demands to provide clarifications in connection with the incident, the measures taken in relation to all those involved in the terrorist act.

This terrorist attack has deteriorated the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations, which certainly affects other areas of bilateral relations, Hajizadeh said.

When asked by a Turan correspondent whether a complete rupture of diplomatic relations is possible if the Iranian side does not conduct an objective investigation, Hajizade refrained from assessing at this stage and said that he could not prematurely say what steps would be taken.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also distributed a video showing footage from CCTV cameras and testimonies of wounded embassy employees. ---06B---