Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted on Armenia opening the so-called extraterritorial “Zangezur Corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave, which he called “the final step that will crown and complete this peace agreement,” while answering journalists’ questions over the weekend while returning from the NATO Summit held in Washington D.C.
Erdogan emphasized that the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border is conditional on such a peace deal, adding, “We must now set all sails towards peace. We hope that a permanent peace will be established between Azerbaijan and Armenia soon. Turkey wholeheartedly supports this peace.” He continued, “We want positive decisions along this path to be made without delay. There are now positive signals coming from the region, and we hope that they will eventually bring good news.”
Erdogan stated, “The opening of the Zangezur Corridor is the final step that will crown and complete this peace agreement,” and added that it “would benefit everyone, especially Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Iran.”
He further remarked, “It is very important for Ilham Aliyev. Hopefully, when the railway system is launched there, Azerbaijan will be much calmer.” He added, “These steps will make a positive contribution to the prosperity of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, and other countries in the region.”
Erdogan’s demand for Armenia to open the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” adds to Aliyev’s precondition to change Armenia’s constitution for a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku. Erdogan and Aliyev aim to connect mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhichevan exclave, which borders Turkey, creating an uninterrupted land link for the Turkic world through this new corridor. The so-called corridor, demanded by Baku and Ankara, would pass through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran, effectively cutting a part of Armenia off from Iran. Iran has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip it of the common border and transport links with Armenia.
The Armenian Government has stated, that people and goods moving between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan cannot be exempt from Armenian border controls and that the two South Caucasus nations should have only conventional transport links guaranteeing their full control over all transit routes passing through their respective territories. While visiting Turkey in March, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan mentioned that this issue is one of the two main sticking points in ongoing negotiations on an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty.
Meeting with a visiting Azerbaijani official last October, Iran’s then-President Ebrahim Raisi reportedly said that the “Zangezur Corridor” is “resolutely opposed” by his country. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated this stance to Erdogan when they met in Tehran in 2022.
Turkey’s Erdogan complained about Iran’s stance a year later. His Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, stated in March this year that the corridor would benefit not only Turkey and Azerbaijan but also the entire “Turkic world.”
