Armenia Set to Start Work on New Corridor to Karabakh

In late June, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s cabinet allocated funding for a geodetic survey and map design needed for the road’s construction. A group of surveyors and other construction specialists were later spotted near Kornidzor, an Armenian village close to the Lachin district.

“Surveyors came and took measurements in an area through which [the road] will pass,” Lusine Karamian, an official from the village administration, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

“According to our information, the road will pass through fields adjacent to Kornidzor, said Karamian.

Arayik Harutyunyan, the Karabakh president, sought to allay concerns about the loss of the current Lachin corridor and its security implications when he addressed local legislators in June. He stressed that the route of the bypass road built by Azerbaijan was approved by Karabakh’s leadership.

For many residents of Armenian and Karabakh villages located along the planned new corridor, those security concerns outweigh its potential economic impact on their communities. As one of them put it, “If you can tell me what will happen tomorrow, I will tell you whether or not the [new] road will be good for us.”