Yerevan | July 16, 2025 — Former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has sharply criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent remarks on the potential establishment of a transport corridor through Armenia’s Syunik province, calling it a dangerous concession of sovereignty and a gateway for Azerbaijani expansionism.
In a strongly worded Facebook post published after Pashinyan’s press conference, Oskanian accused the prime minister of misleading the public by equating the proposed corridor with ordinary public-private infrastructure partnerships.
“Pashinyan compared the idea of transferring control of a corridor across Armenia’s sovereign territory to a third party with outsourcing national infrastructure, such as airports or railways. This analogy is absurd, misleading, and dangerous,” Oskanian wrote.
He emphasized that outsourcing airport management, for instance, is a commercial agreement under full national jurisdiction — a standard practice globally. In contrast, the so-called “corridor” concept advanced by Azerbaijan and echoed by some international actors envisions extraterritoriality — a strip of Armenian land removed from Armenian legal, administrative, and security control.
“This is not a business deal — it’s a surrender of sovereignty,” he warned.
Oskanian argued that Pashinyan’s framing dangerously lowers the threshold for future concessions and misguides the Armenian public on what is fundamentally at stake: the territorial integrity of Armenia.
He particularly took issue with the suggestion that a third-party-managed corridor would provide “uninterrupted connectivity” between mainland Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan. According to Oskanian, such a setup would “pose a direct threat to Armenia’s sovereignty, regardless of who manages it.”
“A corridor under foreign control creates a precedent that overrides Armenian national jurisdiction in favor of a state that not only refuses to renounce violence but continues to threaten Armenia’s existence,” he added. “This corridor would effectively become a tool of Azerbaijani expansion.”
The statement comes amid renewed international discussions on connectivity projects in the South Caucasus, with reports suggesting that external powers, including the United States, may be exploring temporary administrative solutions for the Zangezur route. Pashinyan’s comments earlier this week hinted at the possibility of such a third-party role, drawing both domestic and international scrutiny.
While the Armenian government continues to promote regional peace and economic integration, critics like Oskanian warn that any corridor proposal must be weighed not only against its logistical benefits, but also its long-term implications for national security and sovereignty.
