Karen Igityan: Trump’s statement is laughable, if he’s not in White House, who are we going to call?

Regional affairs expert Karen Igityan claims that Armenia has gained nothing from the declaration signed in Washington by Trump, Pashinyan, and Aliyev, which effectively grants Baku an unobstructed route through Armenian territory to reach Nakhichevan.

“Trump’s statement about calling him in case of problems is laughable. And if Trump is not in Washington, who are we going to call? If the promised corridor is created, supposedly under Armenian sovereignty, questions arise. For example, media reports suggest that Armenian customs officers and border guards will not be stationed there, meaning it will be an Azerbaijani checkpoint. There’s a problem with imbalance here: Baku will act and succeed, as it did with the November 9 declaration, while Armenia neither wants to act nor is able to, due to a power and political imbalance. For instance, if a problem arises and Azerbaijani drivers stage a protest and block the Armenia-Iran road, what will Yerevan, Baku, and Washington do? That’s a question with no answer. There’s the precedent of Artsakh, where Baku used ‘eco-activists’ to block the road and isolate Artsakh. They’ll try to do the same here,” Igityan told Alpha News.

According to the declaration signed by Pashinyan, Aliyev, and Trump, Armenia will cooperate with the US and mutually agreed third parties to define the framework for implementing the Trump Route communication project on Armenian territory. The Trump Route, according to Karen Igityan, is the so-called corridor demanded by Baku and Ankara.

“Baku has repeatedly said it’s abnormal to cross borders to get from one part of the country to another. As soon as the declaration was signed, Aliyev thanked Turkey for its support. On the other hand, Turkey’s foreign minister announced that this opens a Turkish route to Central Asia. This is actually the ‘grand Turanic route’ that, after the 2020 war, was referred to in Iran as the NATO-backed Turanic corridor—it has now become a reality,” the expert noted.