After the end of the 44-day war, Armenia and Azerbaijan took a similar political path: to reduce Russia’s influence in the region. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev took a provocative stance towards Moscow and effectively entered into a diplomatic conflict. On the other hand, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has begun implementing a long-term plan to gradually oust Russia from the country’s political and economic systems. This is what the qudsonline.ir website writes in its article entitled “Zangezur and the Silent Coalition Against Moscow”.
“From leaving the CSTO to demanding EU intervention, Armenia is clearly turning towards the West. In this context, even the Armenian Apostolic Church has become the target of Pashinyan’s criticism, and economic structures led by pro-Russian investors, including the Karapetyan group, have lost their influence.
In such circumstances, abandoning the railway in the Russian-controlled Syunik region and focusing on the “Zangezur Corridor” is a clear geopolitical move,” the source writes.
USA: A Shadow Player
“After Moscow’s attention to the Caucasus weakened due to the war in Ukraine, the United States began active negotiations with regional parties on the management of transport projects. According to available information, Washington even offered to lease the “Zangezur Corridor” for 100 years. Although Russia continues to refer to the agreement of November 9, 2020, in reality it no longer has the leverage to implement it. Russian peacekeepers have been withdrawn, and Moscow is more focused on the Ukrainian fronts than on the South Caucasus,” the article says.
Zangezur: Economic Salvation or Political Illusion
The “Zangezur Corridor” is often presented as a key link in the “Middle Corridor” – a route that is supposed to connect China with Europe via Central Asia and Turkey. However, analysts warn that the project faces serious geopolitical challenges.
The corridor must pass through the Caspian Sea, a body of water whose use depends on the joint consent of the littoral states, including Iran and Russia, which are currently excluded from the Zangezur Corridor project.
Zangezur is therefore not just an economic project, but a tool for gradually pushing Russia out of the South Caucasus and bypassing Iran’s strategic role. “A corridor that, as long as Baku continues its confrontational policy and Yerevan is on a pro-Western path, remains more of an ‘illusory corridor’ than a path to peace and trade,” the source concluded.