During the discussion of the 2026 state budget in the National Assembly, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced Yerevan’s readiness to open a new transit route for cargo transportation between Turkey and Azerbaijan. The statement — which followed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decision to allow Armenian cargo transit through Azerbaijan — has become one of the most significant signals in the context of post-conflict processes in the South Caucasus.
According to Pashinyan, Armenia is prepared both politically and technically to ensure the passage of Turkish trucks along a route that runs from the Margara border crossing with Turkey through Yeghegnadzor, Sisian, and Goris, and onward toward Azerbaijan. This corridor would connect the eastern provinces of Turkey with Azerbaijan’s East Zangezur region, particularly with the Lachin district, thereby laying the foundation for a new transport hub of regional importance.
The emergence of such a route fits objectively into the broader framework of infrastructural transformations that Azerbaijan has been actively implementing in the territories restored under its sovereignty. A special focus is on the East Zangezur region, where large-scale construction of highways, bridges, tunnels, and airports has been underway for several years. One of the strategic projects was the construction of the international airport in Lachin — launched in 2021 and commissioned in 2025. Located at an altitude of around 1,700 meters above sea level, the airport is one of the highest in the region and features a 3,000-meter runway capable of handling heavy transport aircraft. The decision to build it now appears farsighted: the airport has become a vital junction for roads connecting Agbend in Zangilan with Gubadli, Kalbajar, and further with Goygol, as well as for the Great Silk Road highway. Thus, Lachin has become the meeting point of key transport arteries, giving the region the status of a new logistics node on the South Caucasus map.
The coincidence of temporal and spatial factors allows Pashinyan’s proposed route to be viewed not as an isolated initiative but as a potential component of a unified communication space — one that Azerbaijan has already made significant progress in shaping. The East Zangezur infrastructure is designed for multi-level integration, primarily automotive and aviation. In this sense, Lachin is becoming a natural junction for regional flows: routes from Turkey via Armenia could converge here, along with internal roads linking Karabakh’s districts with the rest of Azerbaijan.
The geopolitical significance of this process goes far beyond transportation logistics. For Turkey, the opening of such a route would create an alternative land corridor to Azerbaijan bypassing Nakhchivan, enhancing its economic and political footprint in the South Caucasus and strengthening the Turkish-Azerbaijani transport network. For Armenia, this initiative could become a step toward overcoming transport isolation and gradually integrating into regional communication systems — opening new opportunities for economic growth, transit revenues, and infrastructural development. For Azerbaijan, it represents a strategic consolidation of its role as a key node of interregional flows, where East Zangezur becomes not only a symbol of reconstruction but also a space of practical integration uniting the interests of several states and economic zones.
Iran’s growing interest in the emerging transport axis Agbend–Lachin–Kalbajar–Ganja–Georgia also deserves attention. In this context, the construction of the Agbend–Kalale bridge and highway gains special importance for both Azerbaijan and Iran, as it opens new opportunities for cargo transit, route diversification, and deeper economic cooperation between the two countries.
In effect, a new transport and logistics axis is taking shape in the region — linking Turkey’s Eastern Anatolia, Armenia’s Syunik province (Western Zangezur), Lachin, East Zangezur, and Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region. Along this line, investments are already being concentrated in road and engineering infrastructure, including the construction of bridges and tunnels, creating a basis for the transition from political statements to tangible economic outcomes. Within this system, Lachin functions not merely as a transit point but as a center where flows, interests, and development directions converge — turning it into one of the key elements of the new regional transport architecture.
Although Pashinyan’s proposed route cannot replace the concept of the Zangezur Corridor, it fits organically into the overall strategy of unblocking communications across the region. Yerevan’s initiative, combined with Azerbaijan’s infrastructural projects, effectively brings closer the realization of the idea of open transport links in the South Caucasus, creating the prerequisites for a gradually interconnected space where economic interests begin to outweigh political divisions.
Ilgar Velizade
