YEREVAN (Realist English). The founder of the Armenian national movement Ashkharazhokhov, Sarkis Tsaturyan, has strongly rejected a U.S. proposal to assume control over a key section of Armenian territory — the Syunik corridor — calling it an insult to the Armenian people and a betrayal of national interests.
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack reportedly said that Washington would be willing to lease a 32-kilometer stretch of road through Armenia’s Syunik province for 100 years if it would help secure a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku.
“They’re arguing over 32 kilometers of road, and this has gone on for a decade. So America says: ‘Fine, we’ll take care of it. Lease it to us for a hundred years, and you can share it among yourselves,’” Barrack said during a briefing.
According to Middle East Eye, Armenian representatives requested that any operating company also work on the Nakhchivan side of the corridor — a condition Baku reportedly rejected.
Tsaturyan, whose movement advocates for Armenian sovereignty and national revival, responded sharply:
“Armenian land must be governed solely by Armenian officials and soldiers — not by foreign governments or international corporations. Even the idea of handing control over Syunik’s roads to the Americans is an insult to the Armenian people. We are fully capable of managing our own communications infrastructure. Any such proposal is a betrayal of our people’s vital interests and a form of criminal negligence,” he said.
He added that the refusal by Azerbaijani authorities to allow American oversight on the Nakhchivan side only confirms the absurdity of the U.S. proposal.
Tsaturyan recalled that the U.S. lost its credibility in the region following the 2020–2023 Azerbaijani-Turkish war against Artsakh and Armenia:
“The United States had an opportunity to act — to demand an end to aggression against the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh, and to impose sanctions on Turkey and Azerbaijan. Instead, the Trump and Biden administrations capitulated to the occupying powers.”
He noted that up until September 2023, the U.S. could still have acted by introducing an international peacekeeping force to prevent ethnic cleansing and mass deportation of Artsakh Armenians — a step Ashkharazhokhov had repeatedly urged both the U.S. and France to take as OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
“But all we received was silence and complete disregard for the rights of the Armenian people of Artsakh,” Tsaturyan said. “How, after all this, can anyone seriously propose giving control of Syunik to an American company?”
In response to Ambassador Barrack’s idea of a 100-year lease in Syunik, Tsaturyan offered an alternative:
“Let the ambassador divide a ranch in Texas with the Baku gangs and build a Turkish-Azerbaijani corridor through Texas — that would surely bring peace to the South Caucasus for the next hundred years. How does he like that idea?”
He concluded:
“Syunik is not a ‘32-kilometer road.’ It is a sacred Armenian land, older than European civilization. Every centimeter is soaked in the blood of Armenian patriots. No nation on Earth has the right to demand that Armenians surrender Syunik to Baku-Turkish fascists or any external force.”
