February proves unsuitability of Pashinyan's project

Due to the recent snowfall, most roads in Armenia have been closed for heavy vehicles. Even the road leading to Iran was closed, which happens quite rarely.

Against this background, the international PR campaign "Crossroads of the World" conducted by Nikol Pashinyan in recent days looks more than sad.

During his trip to Davos and Washington, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan touted his initiative as best he could. The Armenian Prime Minister was very convincing, proving that the "crossroads" is a salvation for regional transit and all the problems only come from the fact that it has not yet been implemented. He called for investments in this project, without which the Europe-Asia transit simply cannot survive. According to him, there are currently no opportunities for efficient and profitable transit in the region, and only the Crossroads of the World is able to fix everything. It's about investments.

Yes, Yerevan does not have its own funds to implement such a project. This is a lot of money, because it is not necessary to build a straight highway, but to lay routes passing through areas with difficult terrain and requiring many engineering structures - bridges, tunnels, and so on. Most of the territory of Armenia is mountainous, which makes it impossible to build railways, and the mountain serpentine, even in good weather, is unsuitable for the movement of cargo caravans and the transportation of those volumes of goods exchanged between East and West.

Europe and China will start investing rapidly. This is a legitimate desire, given that Armenia has remained aloof from all transport and logistics projects in the region, and he wants to change this reality. But Pashinyan, as always, went to the goal the wrong way. In order for Armenia to become a transit state, it does not need to reinvent the wheel. There are regional transport and logistics schemes already drawn up by Azerbaijan. Armenia can become a part of this matrix, or it can continue to remain on the sidelines. That's her business. But regional transit will not be affected in any way by its disposition.

After last week's PR campaign, the current situation on Armenia's roads turned out to be very inconvenient. Of course, it is not Pashinyan's fault that Armenia has a mountainous terrain and that the climate there is not the most suitable for uninterrupted bulk cargo transportation. No one is accusing him of this. He is accused of trying to talk about the real opportunities offered by Azerbaijan with his fantasies. In the five post-war years, it was already possible to build the required communications. Instead, Nikol Pashinyan, running around the world with a map of his "Crossroads of the World," is trying to sell Azerbaijan its own initiative of the Zangezur Corridor for opening all other roads beneficial to Armenia. This is quite clear in his statements. Half a step remains before the Armenian Prime Minister announces the Zangezur corridor as his initiative, which was generously offered to the Azerbaijani side.

Yerevan sees the opening of the Zangezur corridor only as part of its "crossroads of the world." He is not going to restore this railway line without opening other communications that were closed at the beginning of the Armenian aggression. Pashinyan made this clear, and the PR project serves the purpose of finding allies in this case. Although everyone understands that no crossroads in this region is possible without Azerbaijan. Transport communications are vital arteries, without them the economy stops. No matter how one of the neighbors treats Azerbaijan, everyone understands that it is more expensive to quarrel with Baku. This is understood both in Iran and in Russia, and Armenia has managed to fully experience it in its own practice.

"Crossroads" is wonderful, but the weather is whispering...