Following the Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has been going on for almost 30 years, a peace agreement was signed in Washington on Friday 8 August at the invitation of US President Donald Trump. The two countries, which has previously met many times with Moscow's mediation, had failed to reach an agreement on the Zangezur Corridor connecting Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan and the Karabakh conflict. 

 

ZANGEZUR BELONGS TO USA FOR 99 YEARS

 

The meeting in Washington produced both a peace agreement and an agreement that will have major implications in the South Caucasus transforming the Zangezur Corridor into a new transit route. The corridor originates in the Nakhchivan region of Azerbaijan, which also borders Turkey, and passes through Zangezur (Syunik) in southern Armenia, connecting it to Baku. With the latest agreement, Zangezur will also become a transit corridor called the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity", or TRIPP for short.

 

The agreement signed between the two countries also includes the establishment of the Zangezur Corridor, which will connect Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan via Armenia. The realisation of this corridor was a step Baku had been demanding for a long time. Trump said that Azerbaijan would have access to its territory, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, through this corridor, but that it would "respect Armenia's sovereignty".

 

Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey, has no direct land connection with Azerbaijan. The US will retain the rights to develop this corridor in a strategic region rich in natural resources.

 

REACTION FROM IRAN AND ARMENIA

 

Immediately after the deal, Iran said, "The South Caucasus is not an unclaimed land that Trump can rent. This passage will not be his property, but a graveyard for his mercenaries." A similar reaction came from the Armenian opposition.

 

Head of the European Party of Armenia Tigran Khzmalyan spoke to Mezopotamya Agency (MA) on the issue.

 

ARMENIA'S SOVEREIGNTY JEOPARDISED

 

Khzmalyan said the agreement essentially jeopardised Armenia's sovereignty and state control over its southern border. Khzmalyan said that it was not very positive for Armenia to end a dispute that has been going on for years with such a result, "Yes, this is a very long political, historical, religious and civilization dispute, and it is not a 35-year dispute as some people think. It is a century-old dispute between the Christian population of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsach as we call it. It is a remote, mountainous region that became a republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was autonomous during the Soviet Union, and whose population was deported in 2023 in an attack by Azerbaijani forces backed by the Russian Federation.

 

After all these wars, Donald Trump recently invited Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and 22-year dictator Ilham Aliyev.  The three of them gave Azerbaijan the Nakhchivan region and control of the Sunni road, Armenia's southern border. Again, a rather strange memorandum was signed, providing free access to Azerbaijan and the Central Asian Turkic Republic, giving Donald Trump the hope of the Nobel Peace Prize and guaranteeing Pashinyan's stay in power for another term."

 

GENOCIDE REMINDER

 

Stating that this agreement is a very complex and humiliating attitude for the Armenian people, Khzmalyan said: "Many of us could not understand what happened. Indeed, the society was deeply shaken first by the memory of the 1915 genocide, then by the losses and defeat of the 2020 war, and then by the trauma of the Armenian exit from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. That is why now people are confused and do not understand what is happening.  Some hope that this will be the end of the story. Some, including me, believe that this memorandum and this agreement is far from perfect. Because it is based on power, not justice. Because Trump himself has concluded that this is peace through strength. I believe that real peace can only be achieved, can only be lived and can only be more or less lasting if it is based on justice and international law."

 

ECONOMIC, GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION WILL CHANGE

 

"Perhaps the best and only positive aspect of this situation is the expulsion of Russia, first as an empire, then as the Soviet Union and now as Putin's dictatorship. For the first time in 200 years, Russians did not participate in a major geopolitical power shift. Why did the Americans intervene? Partly because of Donald Trump's personal ambitions. We know that no other effort by Trump, who really sincerely wants to stop wars, has succeeded. So far, neither a war between Russia and Ukraine nor the conflict and tragedy in Gaza has been stopped by American intervention. Of course, there is no war between Armenia and Azerbaijan at the moment. But Armenia has been trying to balance in this very complex region for a thousand years. And now the balance is broken because for the first time in history there is a land corridor between Turkey and Azerbaijan. And this could change the political, geopolitical, economic and demographic situation in the wider region."

 

RISKS 

 

Khzmalyan said that they will not accept the idea of the Zangezur Corridor that Aliyev and Erdogan are talking about: "Because they want cross-border control over the border between Armenia and Iran. They partly succeeded in selling this idea to Trump because there are other forces, such as Israel's Netanyahu, who dream of cutting Iran off from its northern routes. I don't think the Europeans are fully on board with this idea because we know that sooner or later Iran will become part of the world political system with an open border with a secular government. This will be a great chance for peace in the greater Middle East. At the moment we see that the Armenia-Iran border is not transparent because the most complicated part of this agreement is that America is not responsible for the protection of the border. Instead, they are talking about a military special group whose origin is unknown and for which there is no real state responsibility. The Zangezur Corridor has therefore been renamed the Trump Road as a gesture to Donald Trump. But clearly the content has not changed. Armenia is essentially putting its sovereignty and state control over its southern border at risk. And this was done under great pressure from the United States, Turkey, Israel and Azerbaijan."

 

THE BARRIER BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES HAS BEEN LIFTED

 

Khzmalyan said that Armenia was a kind of barrier between Turkey and the Turkish republics in Central Asia for about 100 years: "Artsak or Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhchivan, was occupied by the Turkish and Soviet armies in 1920. The Sunni Vilayet, or Zengzur as they call it, was the last piece of land that cut this promised and envisaged land corridor between Turkey and the Turkic republics. At the moment, they are promising a lot of economic advantages through Trump, and indeed Turkey thinks it will reap huge revenues, huge profits. The kilometres and days-long road from Central Asia to Turkey will be much shorter. But we will see how this will affect Armenia's sovereignty and the balance of power in this important region. This co-operation will also mean that the crimes committed over the past decades and centuries against Armenians and Greeks, Assyrians and Kurds, Yazidis and many other small nations will be whitewashed, or are already being whitewashed in one way or another. Therefore, it is a pity and very unfair that the United States of America, once the torchbearer of freedom and justice, has become an instrument of this game in the hands of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Israel."

 

THE FUTURE IS UNCERTAIN

 

Khzmalyan said that this agreement seems like a success for Turkey and Azerbaijan for the time being and added: "The future of Armenians, Kurds and other nations in this region who are fighting for their sovereignty, freedom and independence is more bleak and uncertain than the past decades. I believe that the great game is not over, but the struggle against it continues."

 

MA / Adnan Bilen-Hivda Çelebi