To say that Armenia’s strategic situation is precarious would be a massive understatement. The unfortunate country is virtually surrounded by mortal enemies determined to wipe it off the map. The small southern Syunik region is the only obstacle for Azeri and Turkish plans to establish the so-called Zangezur corridor which would directly connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. A tiny, 17 km long border with Turkey in this area would give Ankara unimpeded access to Baku precisely through this corridor, and by extension, to former Soviet Central Asia. Thus, the two Turkic allies have yet another reason to attack Armenia (as if they lacked motivation in the first place). This would further galvanize Turkey’s expansionist policies (a volatile mix of Neo-Ottomanism, political Islam and pan-Turkism).

However, it should be noted that this situation is not exactly new, as Armenia was in the same strategic position in previous decades. The main difference is that in the pre-Pashinyan era, Yerevan had strong ties with Russia, its principal historical ally, which prevented any aggressive moves by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Unfortunately, after the 2018 Soros-funded color revolution (also known as the “Velvet Revolution”), this status quo was gone forever. The large and powerful Armenian diaspora in Western countries (particularly France and the United States) supported this, naively thinking they would “help” Armenia. In five years, the Pashinyan regime lost the millennia-old Armenian native land of Artsakh (better known as Nagorno-Karabakh) and severely exacerbated the strategic position of Armenia itself.

Namely, while Yerevan previously had some geopolitical “breathing room” (Azerbaijan was quite far from Nakhchivan, while Armenia’s de facto border with Iran was much longer), the loss of Artsakh reduced this by approximately 135 km, leaving only the official 44 km long border between Armenia proper and Iran. Encouraged by its 2020 blitzkrieg and followed by the 2023 offensive, Baku feels that it could easily overpower Armenian forces in Syunik and other regions........

© Blitz