ArmInfo.The 'Crossroads of Peace' initiative proposed by the Armenian authorities is a project divorced from reality, since any desire to achieve peace and implement it ''on earth'' must be the result of the manifestation of the will of all participants in the conflict, both direct and indirect. About this in a conversation with the correspondent, Doctor of Political Sciences Vahe Davtyan told ArmInfo.
"Today we see the opposite picture, when, in parallel with the pacifist slogans heard from Yerevan, Baku is developing militaristic rhetoric at the highest level, demonstrating its readiness to solve problems with Armenia, including transport, through the use of force. This is firstly. Secondly, Baku and Ankara have an extremely fragmented approach to unblocking communications in the region, by which they mainly understand the establishment of transport links along the Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz line, providing access to the Armenian railway network through Yeraskh. As we see, we are talking about a corridor, in the understanding of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem - extraterritorial. Finally, thirdly, it is important to evaluate the logistics of the ''Crossroads of Peace''. The project includes a road from Sotok to Yeraskh, which, if there is a road through Meghri, can create strategic risks for the south of Armenia. Remember the Danzig, or Polish corridor in the interval between the two world wars and try to extrapolate it to our realities," he said.
He expressed doubts about the feasibility of this project, since Ankara and Baku are aimed at opening communications only through the south of Armenia. As for other, more promising areas from an economic point of view, as the professor noted, after the war of 2020 they are practically not being considered. Thus, the issue of launching a railway connection along the Ijevan-Gazakh line, which in Soviet times was the shortest route through the north-east of Armenia to Azerbaijan and further along the Baku-Derbend line to Russia, is not addressed. Turkish official rhetoric also lacks theses about the Kars-Gyumri railway, the unblocking of which was discussed during the period of "football diplomacy".
"The reason for the latter is clear: by implementing the Kars-Igdir-Nakhijevan railway project, Ankara aims to provide access to Azerbaijan through the pushing "Zangezur corridor". Turkey now has no practical need for a separate line with Armenia. Even all attempts by Yerevan through repairs work on the Margara border bridge shows a focus on opening communications. Ankara reacts by limiting its airspace for Armenian airlines," the political scientist emphasized.
He added that the "Zangezur corridor" is the only thing that Ankara and Baku understand today by "unblocking communications". By providing land communication between themselves via the Baku- Tbilisi-Kars railway, as well as through Iranian infrastructure, Ankara and Baku are aimed at forming an extraterritorial corridor through the south of Armenia, primarily with the aim of developing military- strategic cooperation, and more specifically, the unhindered implementation of military transportation for the militarization of Nakhijevan with the formation of a full-fledged Turkish military base there - a potential springboard against Iran. Realizing this, Iran is doing its best to prevent the formation of the "Zangezur Corridor", offering the parties the so-called ''Araks Corridor'' - almost the same logistics, only along the Iranian bank of the Araks River. "In parallel with this, Tehran has repeatedly expressed the advisability of developing the transport infrastructure of Armenia along the North-South line.
For this purpose, the concept of the "Caucasian Corridor" was developed, designed to provide a multimodal connection between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea. In general, it is important to understand that today Ankara and Baku have a relatively favorable situation for advancing their transport claims. Because of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Middle East Corridor project, which should connect India with the south of Europe through the UAE and Israel, bypassing Turkey, has actually been frozen (remember Erdogan's statement that not a single major transport infrastructure in this macro-region can bypass Turkey). In these conditions, the West needs to diversify its routes to the Caspian Sea and further to Central Asia. The so-called ''Zangezur corridor''. Why not mentioned Baku-Tbilisi-Kars? Yes, because this railway is integrated into the Chinese mega-project "Belt and Road". Also, given the energy problems in Europe, Ankara and Baku periodically declare their readiness to build a gas pipeline through the Zangezur Corridor, as well as a power transmission line to the west. In a word, diplomatic maneuvers are quite interesting, and responding to them with a "Crossroads of Peace" is at least infantile," the political scientist concluded.
At the end of October 2023, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Tbilisi at an international forum for the first time presented the "Crossroads of Peace" project, which, in fact, is the Armenian version of the project to unblock communications in the region after the 44-day war in Artsakh. This is one of the components of the process of establishing lasting peace in the South Caucasus, and if implemented, it could change the status of Armenia, helping it emerge from isolation and become a logistics hub in the region. This was an attempt by Armenia, on the one hand, to counter Azerbaijan's accusations against the Armenian side of preventing the unblocking of communication channels, and on the other hand, to finally formulate its own agenda in a changing region, defending its importance in the context of the implementation of large international logistics projects.
At the same time, taking into account the specific approach of Azerbaijan and Turkey to the launch of logistics and economic communications through the territory of Armenia, which presuppose the presence of extraterritorial parameters, official Yerevan also presented the principles of using regional infrastructure in one package. There are only four of them, but the first two are vital for Armenia, concerning the status of these communications and control over them. According to Armenia, "all infrastructure, including roads, railways and air routes, pipelines, cables, power lines must function within the framework of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries through whose territory they pass." And secondly, Prime Minister Pashinyan, speaking in Tbilisi, emphasized that each country "through its state institutions exercises border and customs control, and also ensures the security of infrastructures, including the passage of goods, vehicles and people through them." This is especially important against the backdrop of recently intensified discussions on the issue of control over the railway and roads that will be built from Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan through the territory of Armenia. Of course, they did not arise out of nowhere, but stem from paragraph 9 of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020. According to this statement, all economic and transport connections in the region must be unblocked, and Armenia will guarantee "the security of transport communications from Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan, which must be under the control of the Border Service of the FSB of Russia."