Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev has again invoked the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” while discussing Armenia’s future dependence on Azerbaijani electricity.
Speaking to Azerbaijani state television, Aliyev said Azerbaijani specialists working under the TRIPP project had already examined territory inside Armenia and identified locations for electricity transmission pylons.
He also again used the term “Zangezur Corridor” for the proposed route through Armenia’s sovereign territory, terminology Armenia has repeatedly rejected while insisting that all routes remain under Armenian sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Aliyev then pointed to the eventual closure of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, warning that Armenia could face an energy deficit and presenting Azerbaijan as a potential electricity supplier.
The implication is difficult to ignore: as Armenia loses a key pillar of its energy independence, Azerbaijan is positioning itself as an alternative supplier.
That carries particular weight after Artsakh. During Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, Artsakh’s Armenian population faced repeated disruptions to gas and electricity, along with severe restrictions on food, medicine and other essential supplies. Energy and access became instruments of pressure against an already isolated population.
Against that record, Aliyev’s warning about Armenia’s future “energy crisis,” combined with renewed “Zangezur Corridor” rhetoric and Azerbaijan’s offer of electricity, sounds less like regional cooperation and more like an attempt to establish another point of dependence.
After Artsakh, the question is whether Armenia is being pushed toward a system that gives Baku leverage over both its strategic infrastructure and energy supply.
