analysis of relations between iran and armenia in the framework of defensive realism

iran and armenia as the countries with great religious, language and cultural differences have close and extensive ties in various fields. to understand the reason of these close and extensive ties, in addition to common interest of the two countries from this relationship, it is necessary to notice an external factor that is republic of azerbaijan and their common threat perception of them. in fact, iran and armenia think of republic of azerbaijan as a threat to themselves. perception of this common threat caused them to shape extensive political- economic relations. this is the main question of the study; why in spite of cultural, religious and language differences there are extension ties between the two countries of iran and armenia? to answer this question the authors use defensive realism theory. the authors believe that iran and armenia based on a common understanding of the interest and concern of the common threat from republic of azerbaijan extend their ties to create a balance of power against it.