‘Crossroads of Peace’ does not exist: Aliyev exposed Pashinyan’s lie

The Munich Security Conference traditionally serves as an indicator of political elites’ sentiments, often exposing existing contradictions. This time was no exception: what official Yerevan tried to conceal behind a façade of peace-loving rhetoric was dismantled in Munich. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s speech at this forum was not just a diplomatic demarche, but an act of final deconstruction of the myth of the “Crossroads of Peace”—a concept promoted by Nikol Pashinyan’s government as a guarantee of Armenia’s sovereignty and economic prosperity.

Aliyev’s sarcastic remark that the “Crossroads” project depends on “Biden’s return to the White House” shifted the discussion from Armenian expectations to Azerbaijani-Turkish demands.

In this context, TRIPP ceases to be an abstract acronym and takes on the features of the “Zangezur Corridor”—a project aimed not at unblocking communications but at creating an extraterritorial route that effectively severs Armenia’s border with Iran. An analysis of Aliyev’s statements suggests that the “Crossroads of Peace” was never part of Baku’s real negotiation agenda as an equal partnership project.

On the contrary, it served as a convenient cover, allowing Armenia’s leadership to legitimize the gradual surrender of strategic positions before its domestic electorate. Aliyev’s exposure of this myth confirms theses previously voiced by Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan. The assessment of TRIPP as a “gift” from the US to Azerbaijan and Turkey at the expense of Armenia’s vital interests today looks less like opposition criticism and more like a statement of an accomplished geopolitical shift. In this scheme, Armenia is not a beneficiary of transit, but merely a donor territory whose logistical capacities will serve foreign interests without real levers of influence on the process.

Equally notable is Baku’s conduct on the international stage, where Aliyev skillfully combines the implementation of Western and Turkish infrastructure initiatives with demonstrative attacks on Russia’s interests. His accusations against Moscow regarding the shelling of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Ukraine, voiced in Munich, point to Baku’s desire to finally push Russian influence out of the region, replacing it with a Turkish-Western vector into which the TRIPP project fits perfectly. This creates an extremely dangerous precedent for Yerevan: losing the support of traditional allies and not receiving real security guarantees from Western partners, Armenia faces isolation against Baku and Ankara.

Thus, maintaining Armenia’s current political course leads to the inevitable transformation of the Syunik region into a buffer zone, where the republic’s sovereignty will be merely nominal. Aliyev’s frankness in Munich serves as a direct warning to Armenian citizens: the price of continuing current policies is the loss of control over the southern borders and the transformation of the country into a logistical appendage.

Instead of the promised “crossroads” connecting the four corners of the world, Armenia risks ending up with a “dead end,” where the only functional element will be a corridor linking Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan and Turkey, finally depriving Yerevan of subjectivity and access to its strategic partner, Iran. Thus, an academic analysis of the situation points to a critical mismatch between Yerevan’s internal propaganda and the rigid architecture of the new regional order, built without regard for Armenian state interests.

Think about it…