(MENAFN- azernews)
elnur enveroglu read more since the history of independence, two currents have existed in
the south caucasus: constructive and destructive tendencies.
historically, azerbaijan's location at the most strategic point of
the region has led to many advantages for it. however, the 30-year
occupation period prevented the country from implementing a number
of advanced projects.
finally, after november 2020, azerbaijan chose a decisive
turning point in the path of economic development. the country
began to attract the interest of european and world countries with
its unprecedented advantages in the field of energy tourism and
many other spheres. emerging perspectives have created the need for
the long and huge transport route connecting the west and the east
(middle corridor) to be put into operation soon.
azerbaijan as the most vital segment of this huge
transport route
azerbaijan's incredible victory in the patriotic war also
revealed its friends and enemies around it. for some reason, iran,
which turned a blind eye to the 30-year occupation, openly sided
with armenia in azerbaijan's rightful war. this biased approach
also led iran and armenia to unite in many insignificant projects
with an obscure future. in april 2023, the issue discussed at the
meeting of the deputy ministers of foreign affairs of iran, armenia
and india in yerevan was supposedly the prospects of new economic
cooperation, or the creation of a new tripartite format in the
south caucasus and the drawing up of new maps.
the formation of this tripartite format has a number of key
strategic implications that could disrupt the geopolitical balance
in the south caucasus.
in fact, the main reason that brought iran and armenia closer
was known: tehran's effort to restore the balance of power in the
south caucasus after the second karabakh war.
because iran, thanks to its dirty intentions, understood very
well that there were no conditions left for its existence in the
region. in addition, azerbaijan's fraternal alliance with turkiye
and pakistan threatened the political "future" of both tehran and
its sister city, yerevan. in particular, as a symbol of the
brotherhood of azerbaijan, turkiye and pakistan, the military
drills started in 2021 turned into a nightmare for both countries.
thus, the attempt of iran and armenia started a new insidious game
under the name of cooperation with the involvement of india as
well.
zangazur corridor or the most sensitive vein of
iran
whether it is the bri or the international north south transport
corridor (instc), azerbaijan's active and leading role in both
projects did not make iran happy. first, the issue of the zangazur
corridor becomes an important factor in the development of the bri
project. and this collides with a point that iran does not like the
most - the fear of severing the relations between iran and armenia
through the only border in azerbaijan's zangazur. although the
azerbaijani official presented tehran with alternative means for
this, it did not work. iran, on the other hand, brought armenia to
the forefront to overshadow the importance of azerbaijan and even
sat at the same table with official yerevan in the negotiation of
the persian gulf-black sea international transport and transit
corridor project.
indian ocean dreams of armenia and iran
since iran is an oppressed state in the region and the world, it
always has to choose allies similar to itself. unable to cooperate
with normal countries, tehran chooses countries that match its
character and disposition in the economic field. it is no
coincidence that iran chose armenia as its most suitable ally in
the persian gulf-black sea international transport and transit
corridor project. both the realities that happened in the region
(the end of 30-year occupation of azerbaijan's territories), the
russian-ukrainian war, and the imposed sanctions caused iran to
start cooperation with armenia and india on new projects. iran sees
both countries as its only way out of the west's economic
pressure.
for instance, the port of chabahar, in the sistan and
baluchistan province of southeastern iran, represents the transit
and commercial bridge between iran, india and armenia. this
facility has turned vital as it is the only iranian port with
direct access to the indian ocean. parallel to the participation of
russia and china in the chabahar port project, including
investments in both the shahid beheshti and shahid kalantari parts
of the chabahar free trade–industrial zone (ftz), which have grown
since the war in ukraine began, armenia has also shown more
attention to this iranian port project in further developing
transit and trade with india.
at the same time, all these plans were not as simple as they
seemed. along with creating a new economic alliance, iran began to
develop a policy of disruption in the region, similar to its sister
state, armenia. in order to isolate armenia from the region and
block the zangazur corridor, which is important for the world, iran
purposefully opened a diplomatic office in the province that
armenia calls it sunik. undoubtedly, this was a policy prepared by
tehran deliberately against the realization of the zangazur
corridor.
however, iran also overlooked the main nuances. the first is
whether it is the free trade zone of aras that it announced, or the
instc project, no matter how much tehran tries to prioritize
armenia in all these large-scale projects, the reality says its
final word.
in a nutshell, despite all the evil intentions of iran towards
azerbaijan, the iran-azerbaijan-russia land route, which is a part
of the instc project, has once again left armenia behind in its
quality and importance.
yerevan's inadequate transit infrastructure and the still
incomplete“north-south highway” are the main problems in this
regard. the 400-kilometer road from yerevan to meghri on the
iranian border passes through mountainous areas and is very narrow,
making it difficult and slow to pass through for trucks, especially
during the winter. furthermore, the lack of a rail connection
between iran and armenia has reduced the volume and speed of goods
transferred along this portion of the corridor. therefore, for the
foreseeable future, the passage running through iran, azerbaijan
and russia (astara-baku-dagestan) will remain the instc's primary
route. at the moment, on average, a truck crosses the shared border
of iran and azerbaijan every seven minutes.
however, sticking to its pro-armenian and envious nature, iran
will likely try to transfer at least part of this traffic to the
armenian-georgian land route and the iranian-russian sea route in
the caspian. as the saying goes, leopard will never change his
spots. iran's intention is not for stability and development in the
region and the world, but rather to develop all conflicts both from
the outside and by direct participation.
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elnur enveroglu is azernews' deputy editor-in-chief, follow him
on @elnurmammadli1