Rea,

Before the breakup of the Soviet Union and the discovery of oil and gas, Caspian Sea did not have a huge strategic value for the Soviet Union so they agreed to a 50-50 split. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation walked away from the agreement and left it to the newly-formed republics to sort things out with Iran.

As you see in the map below, Caspian Sea is surrounded by 5 countries; hence 20% share per country. However if you go by the size of the coastal water, Iran has a very small share (11%). It is worth noting that the oil and gas reserves sit in the southern parts near Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

http://iranian.com/Books/2001/July/Caspian/index7.html

Thx both of you.

Right now discussing the Caspian Sea in the ex-Yu forum (we are curious people) and need some insider's input.

My question is: why did the IRI let the ex-Soviet Union walk away from the existing agreements (1921 n 1940) ?

Why didn't the 3 newly formed countries ask Russians for their shares, instead of taking their shares almost entirely from Iran ?

@Faramarz, if I am reading you right, at the time of the SSSR breakup none knew of the Caspian oil and gas reserves.

Is the above answer to my question ?  At the time none knew about the reserves, so none cared how the Caspian Sea was going to be divided. In other words: Iran woke up to the realities only too late.

My last question: is this related in any way to the Caspian costal borders (as Bachuska lovers are trying to convince me ?)

@Firedup: my link also comes from good, old iranian.com. :o)

In fact, there were some very interesting writings on that site. Personally, saved quite a few of them for future reference. Helas, if you are not Iranian, you need a background. And sometimes it's nowhere to be found. Hence my questions about the Caspian Sea.

Dear Rea: I don't understand Faramarz explanation.  It should not matter whether there was oil or not. The physical, geographical/territorial ownership was auctioned off...for no good reason.

Rea,

Before oil and gas were discovered in the 90's (although Baku has the oldest oil fields in the region), Caspian see was only useful to the USSR because it dumped its industrial waste in Volga River which was discharged to Caspian and also Beluga caviar. Although, the sturgeon fish stayed in the deeper and cleaner southern Caspian Sea.

The Islamic Republic has never acknowledged that the 50-50 arrangement is annulled, but since it needs Russian support in the UN and other international affairs, it stays quiet. Also, since Russia is supplying gas to Europe from its own reserves, it has no interest in seeing that Caspian Sea gas gets explored and shipped to Europe. At this point, there are no agreements among the parties while Azerbaijan is getting gas and oil out of Caspian, similar to the situation that the IR has with Qatar in joint Persian Gulf reserves.

This thing can be resolved when the IR Regime is gone and the parties can negotiate in good faith on how to divide the oil and gas revenues. Russia has reached similar agreements with other nations such as Norway, for example. But because IR is weak and has no negotiating power, the Russians don't see any reason to negotiate.

The Stoli lovers argument is that since only 11% of Caspian Sea perimeter borders Iran, therefore Iran should get 11%. Others argue that the 5 nations should each get 20% each.

short answer: if the Caspian Sea was part of Palestine, the Islamic Republic would have sent millions of Iranian youth to die for it, and would have spared no expense in defending it (also, there would have been countless blogs on iranian.com and on NIAC's website supporting IR's endeavors).   Unfortunately for the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, it lies next to an orphaned land called Iran, which--according to Niloufar Parsi- is a place for "experiments" with governments, esepcially nutty ones.  This government (the IR) is stateless, with its origins in South Lebanon and the PLO.  So, it doesn't give a rat's rear end what portion of the Caspian Sea belongs to Iran.  The only concern for the IR is to develop and atomic bomb as soon as possible so that they can take Israel hostage with it and return the scared land of Palestine back to its people.  

I could not have said it better than AO!  IRI is stateless entity: they don't care about Iran , borders, nationalism, you name it. As long as enough petro dollars comes to their pocket (Thanks to the so called evil shah and previous regime that worked so hard to create and maintain oil industry) it's enough for them to work on their shia ideology , exporting that and building a nuclear bomb to treat cancer patients!

Thx everyone.

Above all, would like to thank my dear @Faramarz for taking time and providing valuable input I can further develop in my own ex-Yu internet battles. Where a lot of people seem to be in love with Putin and IRI. The only remaining anti-imperialist, anti-US, anti-zionist bastions, as they say (sic !).

@AO, thx.

However, the Palestinian land argument is no argument in this particular case.

I don't argue much here but in ex-Yu forums I argue a lot about IRI. 

From time to time, I may even sound pro-IRI here but that's only because iranian.com and now iroon.com are like sounding boards to me. For unless I get my facts straight, I end up myself sounding ridiculous. Eg. picked up a link here (on iroon.com) recently about the IRI cancelling anti-zionist conference. It turned out to be a film festival: http://freebeacon.com/western-media-outlets-confuse-iranian-film-festivals/

Embarassing for my reputation, lol. ;o)  On a more serious note: it shows yet again that every link sholud be checked and double checked before being posted elsewhere.

Bref. If you want people to defend your cause, be acurate, provide valid arguments.

PS. ex-Yu is not a lot of people, no power whatsoever in international dealings. At the same time, our diaspora is all over the world, we vote in our respective countries, we convince other people to vote pro or contra. Every voice counts, doesn't it ?

May or may not have explained myself well, but above is the gist of my postings here.

Well Rea, the answer is very simple;,

Iran under shaikhs is a %10 er country, she only utilize %10 of her potentials, only %10 get the decent jobs, only %10 get to pick their favorite government, only %10 of Iranians are treated like humans, only %10 of Iranian history is recognised, %10 of brain, ........etc... So as u see A %10 er country deserve only %10 of everything & that includes Caspean sea. & Plus, in the eyes of the rest of the world Jehadist fundamentalists are only %10 human thus they get only %10 of what normal folks receive in property. I should elaborate & make this a blog..yahhhh. cheers!!!

Cheers to you, my dear @SamSam. Great pleasure in reading your 10% er. 

Looking forward to your blog. If it's omati gander and hezbollahi goose, count me in. ;o))

IRI does not have the power to take issue with its share. However, given that IRI interest does not coincide with Iran's interest, do we really want IRI to have a lrager share? If as Faramarz said the oil resources are on the southern parts of the Caspian, then I wouldn't mind if it's share shrank to 1%.