The “Zangezur Corridor” Initiative: postwar geopolitical strategies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran in the South Caucasus

The article examines the geopolitical significance of the so-called Zangezur Corridor initiative. Introduced by Azerbaijan after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, the project illustrates differing approaches of regional stakeholders to postwar connectivity and influence. Through a comparative analysis of primary and secondary sources, such as official statements, policy documents, international reports, and statistical data, the article explores how and why Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, and Iran differ in their positions on the initiative and what these differences reveal about their broader postwar geopolitical strategies. It is argued that the initiative operates not only as a logistical project. On the one hand, Azerbaijan and Turkey aim to institutionalize regional dominance and advance Pan-Turkic integration economically and ideologically through this project. On the other hand, Armenia and Iran perceive it as a threat to sovereignty and regional balance. By placing the “Zangezur Corridor” initiative within the broader Eurasian connectivity and competition, the article contributes to scholarship on post conflict reconstruction and infrastructure politics and the geostrategic function of transport corridor initiatives.