After the Artsakh debacle, what lies ahead for Armenia? Realistically, Russia seems to care less about Armenia’s future as demonstrated by the sellout of Artsakh to Azerbaijan. For the foreseeable future, Armenia cannot count on the support of Russia. What then? What can Armenia do to protect its territorial integrity while the wolves of Azerbaijan and Turkey are at Armenia’s doorstep?
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora must be realistic during these turbulent times, because as of now, no major power has committed itself to helping Armenia. Many solutions may be hard to swallow but must be considered to keep Armenia alive and well. What if Armenia had a treaty with Turkey and Azerbaijan to allow passage of goods through the “Zangezur” corridor and allow Azerbaijan to connect to Nakhichevan and Turkey? Part of that agreement would include monetary payments to Armenia to allow this to happen – in other words, an in-transit payment for various shipments crossing the corridor through Armenia. Also, any treaty should include opening the border between Armenia and Turkey allowing the free flow of commerce between the two countries. In addition, Armenia’s territorial integrity must be safe from any future aggression.
I believe that the possibility of this happening would need the unwavering support of a superpower with influence to help broker this treaty. I would hope that the superpower in such a scenario would be the United States or the European Union. Otherwise, Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, would use military force to take the corridor and those parts of Armenia leaving Armenia empty handed. The Azeris have strongly indicated that is a possibility. It can also be assumed that Turkey will demand that Armenia drop its claim of Genocide to obtain the proposed treaty as shown above. Would Armenia be willing to do that?
Ezan Bagdasarian
Gainesville, VA
