After the Artsakh debacle, what lies ahead for Armenia? Realistically, Russia seems to care less about Armenia’s future as demonstrated by the sellout of Artsakh to Azerbaijan. For the foreseeable future, Armenia cannot count on the support of Russia. What then? What can Armenia do to protect its territorial integrity while the wolves of Azerbaijan and Turkey are at Armenia’s doorstep?
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora must be realistic during these turbulent times, because as of now, no major power has committed itself to helping Armenia. Many solutions may be hard to swallow but must be considered to keep Armenia alive and well. What if Armenia had a treaty with Turkey and Azerbaijan to allow passage of goods through the “Zangezur” corridor and allow Azerbaijan to connect to Nakhichevan and Turkey? Part of that agreement would include monetary payments to Armenia to allow this to happen – in other words, an in-transit payment for various shipments crossing the corridor through Armenia. Also, any treaty should include opening the border between Armenia and Turkey allowing the free flow of commerce between the two countries. In addition, Armenia’s territorial integrity must be safe from any future aggression.
I believe that the possibility of this happening would need the unwavering support of a superpower with influence to help broker this treaty. I would hope that the superpower in such a scenario would be the United States or the European Union. Otherwise, Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, would use military force to take the corridor and those parts of Armenia leaving Armenia empty handed. The Azeris have strongly indicated that is a possibility. It can also be assumed that Turkey will demand that Armenia drop its claim of Genocide to obtain the proposed treaty as shown above. Would Armenia be willing to do that?
Ezan Bagdasarian
Gainesville, VA
Ezan Bagdasarian
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I think the writer is confusing the road through Armenia to Nakhichevan with the concept of Corridor. These are two different things. Corridor implies that the road through Armenia belongs to Azerbaijan. This is completely unacceptable. The 2020 agreement calls for a road, not a corridor.
Stop wasting time. The ONLY way Armenia will survive in the current world is if its gets annexed by Mother Russia. Period. Everything else is a sadomasochistic endeavor. The pan-Armenian effort to keep Russia at an arms-length during the past 30-years brought us this tragedy. If we continue on this path, Armenia will disappear from the world map once again.
Great letter, Ezan. I agree with you 100%!
a region where both turkey and Azerbaijan benefit economically from Armenia is a region with a stable and prosperous Armenia. a region where Armenia isolates itself and keeps on buying weapons to fight “the next war” is as region with a poorer Armenia where men escape being drafted into the army so as to live a better life in Europe or America. who wants to die for a lost cause like those kids who died for nothing in Azerbaijan.