Azerbaijan: Where East Meets West, Spy Meets Spy : NPR

The small Central Asian country of Azerbaijan has found itself caught up in the rising international tensions over neighboring Iran and its nuclear program. Despite traditional ties with Iran, the former Soviet republic has increasingly aligned itself with the West, and with Israel. An incident at a recent soccer match in the Iranian city of Tabriz is still a point of pride in Azerbaijan. In the middle of the match, hundreds of ethnic Azeris in the crowd broke out their national flags and began to chant that the city belongs to them. The video was a big hit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. It was a rare demonstration by Iran's ethnic Azeri minority, many of whom argue that northern Iran should be part of a greater Azerbaijan — a sentiment that is shared by many in Baku. And that is not the only point of tension between the two Central Asian neighbors. Recently, Baku and Tehran have traded accusations of cross-border conspiracies and assassinations. http://www.npr.org/2012/02/17/147049537/azerbaijan-where-east-meets-west-spy-meets-spy