The Zangezur corridor (; ) is a concept for a transport corridor that emerged after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, promoted by Azerbaijan and Turkey as a direct land link between mainland Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave through Armenia's southern Syunik province. This proposed route is often envisioned without Armenian checkpoints. The concept was not part of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement but was introduced to the geopolitical lexicon later by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Armenia has steadily objected to it, asserting that "corridor logic" deviates from the ceasefire terms, and that it is a form of propaganda that threatens Armenian sovereignty.
International perspectives are split; some regard it as a pan-Turkic expansionist project which undermines the safety and security of Armenians; others consider the corridor to be a mechanism for easing the long-standing Turkish-Azeri blockade of Armenia.
Historically, the Armenian region of Syunik/Zangezur has been contested by Azerbaijan and Turkey following the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1918. Since 2021, Azerbaijan has occupied sections of internationally recognized Armenian territory, especially in Syunik. Soviet-era railway connections once linked Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan through Armenia, but these were severed during the Karabakh Movement in the early 1990s. Past proposals—including land swaps in the 1990s and early 2000s—failed due to strong domestic opposition in both countries. The dispute intensified in 2021 when Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claimed Armenia had agreed to the corridor and threatened to establish it by military force. Rather than conceding an extraterritorial corridor that threatens its sovereignty, Armenia instead calls for multiple routes to be opened simultaneously as part of the Crossroads of Peace initiative. Russia has at times downplayed the "corridor" terminology, framing discussions around general transport reopening, but later signaled support for the plan.
A shift occurred with the 2025 U.S.-brokered Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), which grants the U.S. exclusive development rights to operate a corridor on commercial terms. This U.S.-brokered project is branded as part of the Armenia–Azerbaijan peace agreement and aims to reduce Russian, Iranian, and Chinese influence in the South Caucasus. Iran and Russia have condemned the role of the United States as an encroachment.
Historical context
Since the early 20th century, Azerbaijan and Turkey have aimed to possess a continuous land corridor between the two countries, with Armenia resisting. The shortest land corridor between Turkey and Azerbaijan is through the Armenian province of Syunik/Zangezur.
Armenia’s defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020) resulted in various concessions being given to Azerbaijan. In addition, Azerbaijan engaged in a 10-month-long military siege and offensive to reincorporate Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan, resulting in the flight of the entire population to Armenia proper. Since 2020, Azerbaijan has escalated its expansionist rhetoric, and occupied internationally recognized Armenian territory, openly threatening further seizures to force the creation of the Zangezur corridor.
Collapse of the Russian empire
Zangezur was the name of a district created by the Russian Empire in 1868 as part of the Yelizavetpol governorate, covering an area including what is today the southern part of Armenia. Syunik, the Armenian name, is an older term dating back to antiquity (see also; the historical province of Syunik . The territory was disputed between the first republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan between 1918 and 1920, following the collapse of the Russian empire. In January 1919, Britain approved Azerbaijani jurisdiction over the territory but Armenian resistance outlasted military pressure until both republics were incorporated into the Soviet Union.
Soviet period and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
In Soviet times, two railway connections used to link Nakhichevan ASSR with the main territory of Azerbaijan SSR. The shorter line that passed via Syunik region (the southernmost Armenian province), was built earlier, in 1941, whereas the Yerevan-Ijevan-Qazax line further to the North, was constructed in the 1980s as an alternative route, connecting Yerevan to Baku and Russia. Both lines were abandoned since 1992 due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In 1989 Azerbaijan launched a blockade of Armenia in an attempt to curb the Karabakh movement which called for independence from Azerbaijan and reunification with Armenia. Turkey later joined the blockade against Armenia in 1993. The blockade is an ongoing transportation and economic embargo which has significantly impacted the economy and the regional trade dynamics of the Caucasus. In 1992, Turkey advocated the "double-corridor concept" firstly introduced by Paul A. Goble, which proposed territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to the proposal Azerbaijan would relinquish Nagorno-Karabakh, which would be linked to Armenia. In exchange, Armenia would concede the southern Zangezur corridor to Azerbaijan, thereby providing a direct land corridor between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.
In 2001 and 2002, Azerbaijan and Armenia discussed an agreement on a "land swap" peace proposal in which Azerbaijan would cede sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh (including the Lachin corridor, which linked southern Armenia to Artsakh, and was de facto under the control of the Artsakh Defence Army but de jure in Azerbaijan at that point) to Armenia in exchange for Armenia ceding sovereignty over the Meghri corridor to Azerbaijan. However, the resistance in both states was strong against the territorial swap, and so the plan did not work.
2020 ceasefire agreement Re-establishment of transport connections was envisaged by article 9 of the ceasefire agreement signed on November 9, 2020 at the end of Second Nagorno-Karabakh War which stated: All economic and transport connections in the region shall be unblocked. The Republic of Armenia shall guarantee the security of transport connections between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in order to arrange unobstructed movement of persons, vehicles and cargo in both directions. The Border Guard Service of the Russian Federal Security Service shall be responsible for overseeing the transport connections.
In December 2020, Russia signalled its desire to connect Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan through a railway link that would go through Armenia. Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia created a trilateral working group in order to unblock communications in the region. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that the activity of this group will serve the implementation of confidence-building measures and resolution of humanitarian problems, and that the interests of Turkey and Iran are taken into account during trilateral consultations.
On 31 December 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced plans to build a railroad line from Horadiz to Zangilan, from where it would use trucks to move goods to Nakhchivan and Turkey, suggesting a potential future transport link between Zangilan and Nakhchivan through Syunik. According to Aliyev, the "corridor" could eventually become a part of the International North–South Transport Corridor, connecting Iran to Russia via Azerbaijan and Armenia, while Armenia would get a railway link to Russia, Iran and potentially to Turkey.
On 14 January 2022, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan set up a working group for reconstruction of the Yeraskh to Nakhichevan border and Meghri sections of the Armenian railways. Adviser to the Prime Minister Artashes Tumanyan was appointed the head of the working group.
2021 "Zangezur corridor" dispute In January 2021 trilateral meeting of Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the issue of opening economic, commercial and transportation links and borders, announcing that a joint working group under the chairmanship of the deputy prime ministers of these countries is formed to work on it.
In February 2021, a dispute arose around a clause in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement that provided for unblocking all economic and transport connections in the region, including that between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared that the ceasefire agreement contained a special provision on the establishment of a so-called "Nakhichevan corridor". The Armenian government and Armenian opposition parties rejected this claim emphasizing that the ceasefire agreement did not contain any provisions for establishing such "corridor".
In April 2021, Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani people would return to what he described as "West Zangezur" and Azerbaijan's "historic lands" within the borders of Armenia, but that Azerbaijan does not have territorial claims to any foreign country. However, a week later, he warned that Azerbaijan would establish the "Zangezur corridor" by force if Armenia would not accede to the creation of the corridor. The Armenian foreign ministry responded that the country would "take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity." In May 2021, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that while Armenia is not willing to discuss 'corridor logic', it is keen on opening transport links as means of direct railway communication with Iran and Russia. The dispute has been cited as one of the reasons for the 2021 Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis.
A new round of trilateral talks began on 20 October 2021. A day earlier, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan said that progress was made toward the railway connections dating from the Soviet period being restored. A day after the talks had begun, Aliyev was quoted as saying that the Armenian side has agreed to the "Zangezur corridor".
On 9 November 2021, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and the co-chair of the trilateral task force dealing with cross-border connections Alexei Overchuk said that "Armenia and Azerbaijan will retain sovereignty over roads passing through their territory". The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed this, commenting on the media speculation about the "so-called Zangezur corridor". The chairman of Azerbaijan's Center of Analysis of International Relations Farid Shafiyev said that if Armenia does not want to say "corridor", then an alternative term can be used, but insisted that unimpeded access for unimpeded movement to Nakhchivan must be given without any Armenian checkpoints, with the security of transport links provided only by the Russian border guards. According to Anar Valiyev, the dean of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, “What Azerbaijan wants is no checkpoints, not to have to stop at the border...We are in a situation where we have leverage, we have time and we can dictate terms.”