The railway administrations of Azerbaijan and Iran discussed the construction of a railway line connecting Azerbaijan's mainland with Nakhchivan exclave via Iran.
The talks occurred during the visit of Azerbaijan Railways Chairman Rovshan Rustamov to the Islamic Republic on Tuesday.
Rustamov and his Iranian counterpart Jabbar Ali Zakari Sardrudi reaffirmed the importance of facilitating the realization of the issues of common interest highlighted in the new railroad’s conceptual development project signed in October last year.
The railway line, unofficially called as “Araz Corridor” will provide a direct land connection between the East Zangezur Economic Region and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan via Iran.
The initial discussions of building this railway link took place in October 2023 during a high-level ministerial meeting. Shortly after, President Ilham Aliyev announced that an agreement has been reached with the Islamic Republic to use this country’s territory for the construction of a highway and a railway to ensure access to Nakhchivan.
The agreement followed Armenia’s refusal to allow a transport corridor – the Zangezur Corridor – from Azerbaijan via its territory despite its legally binding obligations. Article 9 of the 2020 Trilateral Statement signed by Azerbaijan and Armenia states that all economic and transportation connections in the region will be re-established. Armenia commits to ensuring the security of transportation routes between Azerbaijan's mainland and Nakhchivan exclave, allowing for the free movement of people, vehicles, and goods in both directions.
The new 61-km trans-border railway is seen as an alternative to the Zangezur Corridor, since Yerevan firmly asserts that transit access through its territory could jeopardize the country’s sovereignty. Yerevan continually postponed, and eventually canceled, the trilateral inter-ministerial meetings, also attended by Russia, that would have facilitated the construction of road and rail connections on the Zangezur Corridor.
The new route’s launch would enable Azerbaijan to establish a direct connection with Nakhchivan, an autonomous republic of the country located between Iran, Armenia and Türkiye.
Nakhchivan became an exclave separated from the Azerbaijani mainland after the Soviet occupation of the South Caucasus region in 1920. Following the region’s incorporation, Soviet rulers transferred some of Azerbaijan's territories, including the historic region of Zangezur that borders Nakhchivan, to the newly created Armenian state.
Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan in the early 1990s aggravated Nakhchivan’s isolation. All energy, electricity, and transport connections, including highways and railway links, to Nakhchivan were closed by Armenia.
Currently, land connections with Nakhchivan are available via either Iran or Türkiye.
In his recent remarks, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said a transport corridor between Azerbaijan's mainland and Nakhchivan exclave would offer ample opportunities in regional and global connectivity.
According to him, after connecting to the Turkish rail grid, it will connect China with as far as London. Moreover, it will add more capacity to the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway as a shorter connection. In the light of safety, Uraloglu noted that the corridor’s route spans conflict-free zones creating chances to attract cargo from the Suez Channel, which currently receives only 30 per cent of the freight supplies due to safety risks.