Beniamin Matevosyan: Is Turkey coming for the “Zangezur Corridor”?

(Erdogan’s coalition partner spells out Ankara’s plans)

The high-profile statement made by Devlet Bahcheli, leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), during a parliamentary faction meeting in Ankara, finally strips away any remaining illusions about the long-term strategy of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem in the South Caucasus. By describing the “Zangezur Corridor” as a de facto bridge of the Turkic world and a “strategic key” to the “Century of the Turks,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s junior coalition partner voiced what diplomats usually prefer to keep unspoken until a particular moment.

Now that electoral cycles are behind them and their domestic political positions have been consolidated, Ankara and Baku no longer see any need to conceal their true geopolitical ambitions. Bahcheli openly articulated Turkey’s maximalist aspirations, effectively demanding that Armenia hand over this critically important route to the control and administration of external actors.

The synchronization of the Turkish and Azerbaijani leaderships’ actions on this issue appears alarmingly precise. While Devlet Bahcheli is constructing the ideological framework of a new Turkic space, Ilham Aliyev continues to promote the term “Zangezur Corridor” on every international platform, while another festival titled “Return to Western Azerbaijan” is being prepared in Ordubad. This ideological pressure is intended to legitimize far-reaching territorial and logistical claims against Yerevan. Bahcheli’s rhetoric about the “iron fist of the Turks” rewriting history and bringing a final end to “injustice” after the events of 2020 suggests that Ankara no longer intends to show much regard for Armenia’s sovereign borders if they stand in the way of the global project of the Organization of Turkic States.

In this geopolitical game, Armenia finds itself hostage to the shortsighted policies of its own leadership. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s use of hard administrative leverage to maintain power domestically is resulting in enormous losses on the external front. Ultimately, it will be Armenian statehood itself that pays the price for the current Armenian government’s political survival. Instead of the promised era of peace, Yerevan is facing systematic and uncompromising pressure from its neighbors. Ankara and Baku are skillfully exploiting the weakness of Armenian diplomacy, understanding that the republic’s current authorities are prepared to make concessions in pursuit of the illusion of stability.

Bahcheli’s warning that Armenia could “sacrifice the opportunities of the future for the sake of the myths of the past” if it refuses to participate in the proposed format sounds like a barely disguised ultimatum. Beneath the promises of economic benefits and an “end to isolation” lies a straightforward demand for capitulation to the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem. Ankara will slowly but steadily tighten the noose around the neck of the Republic of Armenia, cutting it off from its strategic partners to the south and turning the sovereign territory of Syunik into a transit enclave administered by others. Opening the corridor on Turkish terms would effectively deprive Armenia of its geopolitical agency, cementing the dominance of the Turkic alliance in the region.

Think about it…