The Armenia–Iran border ( hy, Հայաստան–Իրան սահման, translit=Hayastan–Iran sahman, fa, مرز ارمنستان-ایران) is 44 km (27 mi) in length and runs from the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

with

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

’s Nakhchivan region in the west to the tripoint with

proper in the east.

Description

The border starts in the west at the western tripoint with Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan and runs along the

Aras river , az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan excl ...

to the eastern Azerbaijan tripoint. East of this the border continues along the Aras eastwards.

History

During the 19th century the Caucasus region was contested between the declining

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

, which was expanding southwards. By the

Russo-Persian War (1804–1813) The 1804–1813 Russo-Persian War was one of the many wars between the Persian Empire and Imperial Russia, and began like many of their wars as a territorial dispute. The new Persian king, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, wanted to consolidate the north ...

and the subsequent

Treaty of Gulistan The Treaty of Gulistan (russian: Гюлистанский договор; fa, عهدنامه گلستان) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (now in the Goranboy Distr ...

, Russia acquired the bulk of what is now Azerbaijan and parts of Armenia; a border was drawn along the Aras river which is the modern border between Iran and Azerbaijan (excluding the Nakhchivan section) and Iran and Armenia. Following the

Russo-Persian War (1826–1828) The Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828 was the last major military conflict between the Russian Empire and Persia. After the Treaty of Gulistan that concluded the previous Russo-Persian War in 1813, peace reigned in the Caucasus for thirteen y ...

and the

Treaty of Turkmenchay The Treaty of Turkmenchay ( fa, عهدنامه ترکمنچای; russian: Туркманчайский договор) was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–28). It was second o ...

Persia was forced to cede Nakhchivan and the rest of Armenia; the Aras was extended as the border up to the Ottoman tripoint, thus finalising what would become the Azerbaijan-Iran border.Gavin R.G. Hambly, in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', ed. William Bayne Fisher (Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 145-146 During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

Russian Communists staged a successful

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

in 1917, whilst the peoples of the southern Caucasus had declared the

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR; (), (). 22 April – 28 May 1918) was a short-lived state in the Caucasus that included most of the territory of the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as pa ...

in 1918. Internal disagreements led to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

leaving the federation in May 1918, followed shortly thereafter by

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

and

. In 1920 Russia's

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

invaded Azerbaijan and Armenia, ending the independence of both, followed shortly thereafter by Georgia. All three states were incorporated into the

Transcaucasian SFSR , conventional_long_name = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , common_name = Transcaucasian SFSR , p1 = Armenian Soviet Socialist RepublicArmenian SSR , flag_p1 = Flag of SSRA ...

within the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

, before being separated in 1936. An Iran-USSR border convention in 1954 made some minor adjustment along the frontier in the Azeri sections of the border to Iran's benefit. On-the-ground demarcation then followed, with a final agreement being agreed upon in 1957. Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991 Armenia gained independence and inherited its section of the Iran-USSR border.

Border crossings

The main crossing is at Nurduz- Agarak.

Settlements near the border

Armenia

* Agarak *

Meghri Meghri ( hy, Մեղրի) is a town and the center of the urban community of Meghri, in Syunik Province in southern Armenia, near the border with Iran. As of the 2011 census, the population of the town was 4,580. According to the 2020 official es ...

Alvank Alvank ( hy, Ալվանք); is a village in the Meghri Municipality of the Syunik Province in Armenia. History There is a 17th-18th century Armenian monastery in the village. Demographics Population The National Statistical Service of the R ...

Shvanidzor Shvanidzor ( hy, Շվանիձոր, ) is a village in the Meghri Municipality of the Syunik Province in southeastern Armenia, near Armenia's border with Iran. Toponymy The village is also known as ''Astazur'' and ''Shvandor''. History Accord ...

Iran

* Duzal * Qulan * Nowjeh Mehr * Pir Bolagh

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armenia-Iran border

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

Borders of Iran International borders