The author reminds that Azerbaijan has enough military power to take this corridor from the hands of its weaker adversary, Armenia, if necessary. He writes that the population of this area, called Syunik Province, is small, the region is surrounded by impregnable high mountains, and part of it is adjacent to the Armenian-Iranian border.
The abandoned Baku-Nakhchivan-Yerevan-Moscow railroad runs from here along the bank of the Araz River. Neither Iran nor Armenia wants to lose control over this small border strip.
The author ironically notes that it is on this very ground that “the world’s first Christian state” (Armenians traditionally claim to be the first in the world to adopt Christianity as a national religion—Ed.) and the outpost of Shia Islam, Iran, developed surprisingly close, friendly relations.
“The journey from Yerevan to the border town of Meghri takes a good seven hours. I cross the gorge under the Tatev Monastery via the ‘Devil’s Gorge’. I cross a 2,535-meter-high pass that has no crash barriers. You can see Iranian trucks driving back empty, including vintage cars.
“Meghri lies much lower down in a mildly warm oasis between bare rocks. It’s getting dark, but I can still see Iran. You can make out the abandoned railroad line with its elaborate galleries. The tracks were dismantled during the recent war with Azerbaijan and sold off by the new national elite. Only the older generation still remember the trains that took them through Nakhchivan to Yerevan in Soviet times. The youngsters don’t even know that the station was a train station,” the German journalist continues.
The author writes that more than 30 old market carts are propped up against the iron fence of the border crossing with Iran. They will carry the cargo of Armenian citizens arriving from Iran. Armenians are allowed to bring up to 25 kilograms of cargo from Iran. They talk affectionately about the neighboring country.
“It’s so big that you have all four seasons there at the same time,” an Armenian says. “Apart from sausage, we buy everything in Iran. Gas is cheaper there than water!” says another one.
Whole families arrive from Yerevan on shopping trips and spend a night in cheap motels in Meghri. In a conversation with the German journalist, an Armenian cab driver talks about the danger of war over the Zangezur corridor. He also makes no secret of his hatred for Azerbaijanis living on the other side of the border: “The mullahs are doing the right thing, they’re giving them a good kicking!”
In the evening, Martin Leidenfrost walks into a bar with the sign “Disco” in Russian. The owner of the bar talks on Skype with his Armenian friends living in St. Petersburg. The establishment attracts customers with a wide range of meat dishes.
The owner says that everything is very cheap in Iran, but he does not go to the market in Julfa for fear that the Azerbaijanis will cheat him.
When it comes to Russia, the bar patrons cuss out Russian border guards. “Friends like that should be sent to a museum,” one of them says.
The next day the German journalist returns to Yerevan from Meghri across the high mountain passes, but this time does not go through the “Devil’s Gorge”.
“I was told to follow Iranian trucks on the newly built 30-kilometer road. Unnoticed by the world, Armenia is building its own corridor into Iran,” the author writes.
Translated from Haqqin.az
