As the “Tatev Air” cable car departs from the station in Syunik province in southern Armenia, an audio recording in Armenian and English plays, informing passengers that the project’s financier, Armenian businessman Ruben Vardanyan, is imprisoned in Azerbaijan. This message is meant as a show of solidarity with the philanthropist who funded a non-profit project whose proceeds go to restoring the medieval Tatev Monastery. However, to me, it was a clear sign that the peace agreement signed between Yerevan and Baku, for which this area is a key point, leaves several issues unresolved, including the prisoner file.

In Syunik, specifically in Meghri, the “Trump International Peace and Prosperity Road,” also known as Zangazur, is set to connect Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan exclave and from there to Turkey.

The road is a cornerstone of the promised peace brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on August 8, aiming to end decades of conflict between the sides and to enforce a ceasefire. The agreement was signed after a meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Abu Dhabi.

There are no details yet about the exact route of the corridor, how it will be managed, or who will build it, except reports that it will be an American-Armenian partnership.

It is also unclear whether the corridor will be exclusive to Azerbaijan and Turkey or if it will be a road or railway only accessible to Azerbaijani trucks or trains without the ability to exit, and whether Armenian vehicles will be allowed. The corridor is commonly said to be about 43 kilometers long.

Generally, Meghri is a small town on the Armenian border with Iran, with about 4,500 residents, but it could become a geopolitical flashpoint. The signed agreement is not just a step toward ending decades of border hostility but could redraw the commercial corridors map in the South Caucasus and introduce the United States as a new player in the regional influence equation.

Iran viewed Meghri as a key gateway to Europe and the Caucasus and a potential strategic foothold in the struggling Eurasian Economic Union, but the corridor cuts it off from Armenia, partly explaining Tehran’s harsh reaction to Trump’s corridor project. Additionally, the corridor gives Washington a sensitive position bordering Iran.

For Moscow, the agreement marks a decline in its influence, especially since the expected American company oversight of a strategic corridor in the South Caucasus will reduce its role in a region long within its sphere and security protection.

In Armenia, the road itself sparks wide debate. For Yerevan, the controversy is not only about diplomatic and legislative details but also the tangible economic opportunities this new project could provide.

Politically, there is a division between those who say Armenian land laws restrict leasing non-agricultural properties to foreigners and that any change requires parliamentary vote and possibly a public referendum, and those who argue precedents that did not affect sovereignty, such as Zvartnots International Airport, the South Caucasus railway, and Yerevan’s water network, which have been operated under foreign contracts while ownership remains with the state.

A Genuine Yearning for Peace

Away from the country’s political divide and despite the caution imposed by the ambiguity surrounding the agreement’s details, there is a genuine desire to seize the potential opportunities for peace and open borders after decades of isolation.

However, both opponents and supporters of the agreement agree that the continued land blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan turns Armenia into an island accessible only through Iran, exposing it to any tension between Tehran and the West.

In Syunik, as in Jermuk and Yerevan, and perhaps all of Armenia, there is a true yearning for peace among a people “born with a suitcase,” exhausted by disasters and wars, the latest being the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, despite the widespread popular current still refusing to concede more territory, especially since Baku demands Armenia abandon a constitutional clause linked to independence that explicitly refers to its right to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Michael Kirschbaumer, who runs a health resort in nearby Jermuk, says: “The last war exhausted the region. We want peace, no more wars.”

Kirschbaumer is Austrian, married to an Armenian, and has lived in the country for over twenty years. He speaks enthusiastically about the area’s potential, from medical tourism to entertainment and summer vacations.

Some no longer cling to Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing it is “just rocky land not worth more death.”

There is no doubt that breaking Armenia’s isolation, a country of three million with a GDP under $15 billion, is a necessary condition to attract investments and reduce labor migration.

Lucine Gevorgyan, head of Armenia’s Tourism Committee, says: “After signing the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, we hope peace will prevail in the region, and we expect this to make a big difference and bring investments, especially after the borders open.”

…Like “Tatev Air,” listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest cable car in the world (5,752 meters), whose proceeds enabled the restoration of a monastery considered a jewel of Armenian medieval architecture and home to a university that graduated prominent scholars of that era, the potential peace heralds promising opportunities for Armenia, though its path does not seem as easy as the Tatev cable car trail and may require painful sacrifices.