A thin corridor of land in Armenia, connecting Azerbaijan to the exclave of Nakhchivan, is coveted as a potentially lucrative highway and rail corridor to Turkey.
A Soviet statue stands before a crumbling building at the abandoned train station in Meghri, Armenia. The station has not operated since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, is pressuring Yerevan for unfettered access to the corridor, aiming to reopen the old Soviet railroad from Baku to Nakhchivan, as well as a highway for cars. It has already begun constructing infrastructure in preparation for the route.Aliyev has signaled that Baku would use force to seize the corridor if the 2020 deal is not upheld.
Turkey and Russia, which would benefit from expanding transport links crossing Armenian territory, have backed Aliyev’s plans. Russia, especially, wants this route south to circumvent Western sanctions. Moscow has been using Azerbaijan to continue selling oil despite import bans and a price cap regime coordinated by the Group of Seven nations.
The next year, however, a rumor spread that Azerbaijanis had abducted a bus load of Armenian passengers farther north. A lynch mob of angry Armenian residents gathered at the Meghri station. Thinking that Baku had violated the accord, Arman Davtyan, the deputy station director, halted the train. “My honest opinion as a railway employee is that it’s more in Armenia’s interests than Azerbaijan’s,” he said. “It would be very important for our economy.”
“Once I was sitting in the carriage and a stone shattered the window and flew right past me — it was terrifying,” he said. “I always sat away from the windows after that.” He added: “Even though there was no war then, and it was communist rules and society; there was still a lot of hatred.”
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