Factors affecting the convergence and divergence of the Astara frontiers compared to Azarbaijan

Although relations between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan over the past two decades have had many ups and downs, the presence of many obstacles and challenges in the relations between the two countries has caused the volume of interactions between the two countries to be always at a low level. Most of the differences between the two countries are on the nature of political systems and their competition in the context of regional and international categorization. The Caspian region, as a link to Europe and North-East Asia after the Cold War, has a geopolitical and geo-mechanical position. The present study was a descriptive-analytical method aimed at identifying and ranking the effective factors on convergence and divergence of the Astara borderlands towards Azerbaijan. In this research, we evaluated and identified the components and sub factors of effective components on convergence and divergence of the Astara borderlands compared to Azerbaijan using the Topsis approach. The results of the study showed that the highest effective component on the inhabitants of Astara and Azerbaijan is the religious standard and the economic, socio-cultural and political criteria are in the second to fourth positions, respectively.