An armed gunman with an AK-47 rifle entered the Azerbaijan Embassy in Tehran and opened fire. The chief of security for the Azerbaijani diplomatic service in Iran was killed and two people were wounded according to a local journalist.
President Ilham Aliyev called the assault on his country’s embassy a terrorist act and called for a proper investigation.
“We demand that this terrorist act be investigated and the terrorist be punished,” Aliyev said in statement. He added that an attack against a diplomatic mission was unacceptable.
In a statement released shortly after the attack, the Azerbaijani ministry said a recent anti-Azerbaijan campaign in Iran had encouraged the gunman.
It also accused authorities in Tehran of long ignoring Baku’s calls to bolster security at its embassy.
“Unfortunately, the latest bloody terrorist act demonstrates the serious consequences of the failure to give the necessary attention to our constant appeals in this regard”
Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, blamed the attack on “personal and family problems,” according to Iranian state television.
However, the assault comes as tensions have been high for months between neighboring Azerbaijan and Iran.
Head of Azerbaijani embassy’s security service in Tehran has been killed, while two security guards injured in an armed attack on the embassy this morning: Azeri foreign ministry pic.twitter.com/JvgUEsOCN3
— The Khorasan Diary (@khorasandiary) January 27, 2023
Footage shared by the Iranian state-owned news outlet Press TV showed what appeared to be the gunman entering the Azerbaijan embassy in Tehran alone and firing inside the building before scuffling with one man in a white shirt who tries to stop him.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted Iranian prosecutor Mohammad Shahriari as saying the gunman’s wife had disappeared in April after a visit to the embassy.
Shahriari added the man believed his wife was still in the embassy at the time of the attack.
Turkey, which has close ties with Azerbaijan, condemned the attack and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. “Azerbaijan is never alone,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.
