Paul Goble
Staunton, Nov. 14 – According to experts surveyed by the Accent portal, Washington wants there to be an agreement between Baku and Yerevan over the corridor between Azerbaijan proper and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan in the first half of 2026 with construction of highways, railways and powerlines to begin immediately thereafter.
But “the diametrically opposed views” of Armenia and Azerbaijan at this point about t what has been agreed or not agreed up to now and what arrangements should be put in place for the corridor to open make such a timetable extremely unlikely, Ruslan Magomedov of the Accent portal says (akcent.site/novosti/43242).
“Armenia,” he reports experts in the region says, “insists on the principle of mutual benefit but at the same time categorically declares that control over the road must remain completely under the Armenian state” in order to protect its sovereignty and prevent “potential pressure” from neighboring countries including Azerbaijan in the future.
Azerbaijan, in contrast, “view the Trump Route not as the result of a compromise but as the logical extension of obligations already agreed to in previous peace accord documents.” And for this reason, Baku “continues to use the term ‘Zengezur Corridor,’” despite Yerevan’s opposition given that Armenians view this language as an implicit threat about the future.
The two countries may be able to reach an agreement at some point, Magomedov suggests; but they are likely to need far more time than at least some suggest.
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