Prospects of the Zangezur Corridor: Risks, Challenges and Ways to Stability

The creation of the Zangezur Corridor is a complex geopolitical process that goes beyond a simple infrastructure project and reflects the geopolitical competition between Iran and NATO countries in the Caucasus. For many years, Turkey has been striving to change the balance of power in the Caucasus by promoting the policy of the NATO bloc in the region. The countries of the military-political bloc do not want to take into account the important fact that the states of the South Caucasus are the post-Soviet space and this region borders the Russian Federation. Azerbaijan and Turkey consider the corridor as a strategic tool for regional integration and strengthening their geopolitical position. Armenia, on the contrary, perceives this project as a threat to the territorial integrity of its country, which further exacerbates the conflict dynamics in bilateral relations with Azerbaijan. In turn, Iran takes an oppositional side with regard to the geopolitical plans of Azerbaijan and Turkey, as it fears a change in the regional transit order and a weakening of its own position in the South Caucasus. The author notes that the Russian Federation is the only country that has moral and political grounds to participate in the regional processes of the South Caucasus: it strives to maintain a strategic balance in the South Caucasus, minimizing the level of escalation in the region. Russia is the only country that has a high level of professionalism in conducting peacekeeping missions and finding ways to stabilization of political processes in the regions.