Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted Armenia to open an extraterritorial corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave to achieve peace with Baku. Erdogan also stated that the Turkish-Armenian border opening depends on such a peace deal.
“We hope that Azerbaijan and Armenia will achieve lasting peace, which Turkey wholeheartedly supports,” Erdogan told journalists. “The opening of the Zangezur corridor is the final step of this agreement. We want positive decisions without delay, and there are positive signals from the region.”
Armenia maintains that transit between Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan should not be exempt from its border controls and advocates for conventional transport links under full national control. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan highlighted this as a key issue in ongoing peace negotiations.
Erdogan emphasized the strategic benefits of the Zangezur corridor for Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Iran. The corridor would pass through Armenia’s Syunik region, which borders Iran. Iran has opposed the corridor, fearing it would undermine its transport links with Armenia. Former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have both expressed strong opposition to the plan.
Erdogan criticized Iran’s stance, and Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu asserted that the corridor would benefit not only Turkey and Azerbaijan but the entire “Turkic world.”
