The South Caucasian railway is a tool for the alienation of Meghri.
31-07-2026 16:40 Politics
1in.am On February 13, 2008, a contract was signed between the Government of Armenia and the "Russian Railways" LLC, based on which the "South Caucasian Railways" LLC was established. The latter has been granted the right to concession management of Armenia's railway network for a period of thirty years. The document stipulates that the term of the contract may be extended for another ten years.
In fact, the management of Armenia's railways has been entrusted for thirty years not to the Government of Russia or its authorized body, but to a Russian public joint-stock company.
However, that is one side of the issue. More significant is that the Armenian government has agreed to the name of the managing company, "South Caucasian Railways." Meanwhile, the other two countries in the South Caucasus, Georgia and Azerbaijan, manage their railway networks independently through state companies "Georgian Railways" and "Azerbaijan Railways."
On July 23, former Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Zulfugarov made a sensational post on Facebook, stating that "the railway section of Meghri is the property of Azerbaijan, as it is the successor of the Azerbaijan SSR." Zulfugarov is not naive and knows very well that on August 30, 1991, the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan assumed the succession of the Democratic Republic that existed from 1918 to 1920. This act was confirmed by the constitutional law on "Restoration of State Independence" on October 18 of the same year, which was adopted as the basis of the current constitution in 1995.
Nevertheless, he found that if the Meghri section of the Moscow-Baku-Yerevan railway was managed by the "Railway Administration" of the Azerbaijan SSR from 1967 to 1991, then it "remains the property of Azerbaijan." On July 30, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that the railways on Armenian territory are its "property," and the government seeks to "resolve this issue amicably" with Russia.
It should probably be understood that the importance of the Meghri section of the railway for Azerbaijan is so great that there is no doubt that this issue is a possibility for a Moscow-Baku deal. In this regard, the establishment of ownership rights over the entire railway network of Armenia is not merely an economic or communication necessity. It more significantly addresses the issue of Armenia's sovereignty over every square meter of the 29,743 square kilometers of territory, and thus its independence and civilizational identity.
And if Armenia's institutional opposition does not unequivocally support the government in this truly existential situation, it would mean that it essentially supports the Azerbaijani narrative that the Meghri section of the railway is Azerbaijan's "property," effectively endorsing the alienation of at least the Araks-adjacent part of Syunik.
* This text was automatically translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
