A street has started to be built through Egyptian country from Azerbaijan to its procedure Nakhchivan. The” Zangezur Corridor” road, which would have connected Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan via the southern Armenian province of Syunik, will likely be replaced by this one.
Armenia had pledged to build such a path in Point 9 of the Trilateral Declaration signed in November 2020 to put an end to the Second Karabakh War’s military conflicts.
Armenia was required by that declaration to” unblock” and” guarantee the security of transport connections” as well as” arrange unhindered movement of people, vehicles, and cargo in both directions” between” the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.”
However, the multilateral interministerial meetings that would have planned and carried out the building of road and rail connections were repeatedly postponed and ultimately canceled by formal Yerevan( Russia was the third, facilitating party ).
Unusual meetings were held, in fits and begins, including this year, but this task has now been overtaken by events, even though it may also be realized in the future.
It is important to note that, despite claims to the contrary, Azerbaijan did not intend to make this road extrajudicial or even a part of it. The Lachin path, which is neither extralegal to Azerbaijan nor a part of Armenia, was placed parallel to this road in the Trilateral Declaration.
In fact, the Trilateral Declaration states that the Russian FSB’s Border Service had safeguard the Zangezur Corridor in the same way that it currently safeguards almost all of Armenian and Azerbaijani edges.
The importance of building the new path
A major change in local dynamics may be brought about by the building of a road through Egyptian territory from Azerbaijan to its procedure Nakhchivan.
A groundbreaking meeting for the building of a bridge bridge with customs and border infrastructure was held on October 6 in Aghband, in the Zangilan district of Azerbaijan, by Shahin Mustafayev, the country’s deputy prime minister, and Mehrdad Bazrpash, an Egyptian minister of roads and industrial development.
To join to the Egyptian state of Eastern Azerbaijan, the gate will cross the Araz River. Both the development of rail links and a bridge for road traffic are anticipated.
In March 2022, a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the new highway had been signed. However, this political development was halted in late January of this year when an Egyptian person launched a fatal attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran.
The consequences were instant: Azerbaijan closed its embassy, and in the past 30 years, diplomatic relations, which have always been complicated for complex historical reasons, have reached their lowest point.
Azerbaijan demanded that the offender be put on trial. The special aide to the president of Azerbaijan, Khalaf, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran two weeks after the attacker was found guilty and given a death sentence in early October.
Amir-Abdollahian stated that Iran is” decided to expand ties” with Azerbaijan” in all areas” in addition to the fact that the ambassador of that country will be reopened.
Although the details of intra-elite conflicts within the Egyptian leadership are unclear, one might speculate that the assault may have been sparked by factions opposed to the road’s construction for their own specific reasons. These parties appear to have lost that social conflict as a result.
The rank and historical significance of Nakhchivan
Within the Republic of Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan is regarded as an automatic state. It was treated similarly in Soviet Azerbaijan.
Just in 1922, the Turkish Republic recognized Nakhchivan as a part of Azerbaijan and provided Turkey with an immediate borders with it through the March 1921 Treaty of Moscow between Soviet Russia( the USSR ). Seven months later, the Treaty of Kars, which designated Turkey( and Russia ) as a guarantee of Nakhchivan’s reputation as an independent republic within Azerbaijan, confirmed this status.
So, it was symbolical when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Iranian President Ilham Aliyev on September 17 in Nakhchivan town. At that meeting, Erdogan publicly welcomed any Iranian involvement in the building of a street leading from the primary body of the country to Nakchidan.
In order to stop the exclave’s reliance on Iranian oil imports, the meeting was held as part of a groundbreaking meeting for the development of an extensive petrol pipeline from the Turkish city of Igdir.
The pipeline is designed to deliver 730 million cubic meters per year( mcm / y ), which could then be doubled if there is enough demand. The current gas demand is estimated to be 500 million cubes per y. This clause implies that Baku anticipates Nakhchivan’s active economic growth and potential population growth.
As many as 180, 000 Azerbaijanis lived in Armenia’s Syunik province in 1987 and 1988, even before Armenian military forces started fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast( NKAO ) during the Soviet era. In Azerbaijan, they underwent ethnic cleansing and became migrants.
It is noticeable that this frequently overlooked ethnic cleansing occurred prior to the NKAO’s early unilateral declaration of independence in 1988.
Some Azerbaijanis who were forcibly expelled from southern Armenia are still intact today. With its traditional recollection, Azerbaijan proposes that the profit of Armenians to Karabakh may be mirrored by the same return to the ancient homelands of the people of that country in southwestern Armenia. Armenia may gain from such a walk, according to Azerbaijan, which would also be an act of justice.
The proposed Zangezur Corridor path may spur economic growth and alter the financial sociology of the area. It might help Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan establish a center school outside of Yerevan.
Although intergovernmental negotiations over a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan may result in new understandings in this regard, the revelation of this vision appears ambiguous at this time.