Erdogan also indicated that the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border is conditional on such a peace deal.
“We hope that Azerbaijan and Armenia will achieve lasting peace which Turkey wholeheartedly supports,” he reportedly told journalists. “The opening of the Zangezur corridor is the final step of this agreement. We want positive decisions along this path to be made without delay. There are now positive signals coming from the region, and we hope that they will eventually bring good news.”
The Armenian government has said, at least until now, that people and goods moving between Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan cannot be exempt from Armenian border controls and that the two South Caucasus states should have only conventional transport links guaranteeing their full control over all transit routes passing through their respective territories. Visiting Turkey in March, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said the issue is one of the two main sticking points in ongoing negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
“The Zangezur corridor is a strategic route that will benefit everyone, especially Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iran,” Erdogan said, speaking on his way back from Washington where he attended a NATO summit.
The corridor demanded by Baku and Ankara would pass through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip it of the common border and transport links with Armenia.
Meeting with a visiting Azerbaijani official last October, then Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reportedly said that the “Zangezur corridor” is “resolutely opposed” by his country. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made this clear to Erdogan when they met in Tehran in 2022.
The Turkish president complained about Iran’s stance a year later. His transport and infrastructure minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, said in March this year that the corridor would benefit not only Turkey and Azerbaijan but also the entire “Turkic world.”