Zangezur Corridor: Economic Potential and Political Constraints

For many centuries, the South Caucasus has played an important role in the economic and political processes both in the East and in the West. In fact, it has been a crossroads of civilizations and a geo-economic hub of the Eurasian continent. In the near future, transportation routes connecting Europe and Asia are to include the North-South and East-West-Middle Corridors, Lazurite Transit, and some other projects. In recent years, the so called Zangezur Corridor—a hypothetical transport link in the South Caucasus—has been gaining relevance. According to the authors of this initiative, the corridor will run across the 40-kilometer zone of Armenia’s Syunik region bordering Iran. The new road corridor is expected to be part of a longer route from Central Asia or China to Turkey and from there to Europe. The new overland route in the South Caucasus may be connected to the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor. Such logistics promises obvious economic dividends for some countries in the region, while at the same time bearing political constraints that may impede the project’s implementation.