A deserted rail station on Trump’s route to peace where global interests collide

An deserted station, just a few rusted carriages and a dozen metres of monitor are all that’s left of a Soviet railway in southern Armenia.

It might appear unlikely, however this derelict stretch of monitor within the South Caucasus has been tapped to turn out to be a logo of peace brokered by the US president, on the Trump Route for Worldwide Peace and Prosperity, or Tripp.

Scattered round are fragments of a head from a monument to a communist hero. A feminine statue is lacking an arm.

“We’re on the Trump route, also referred to as Crossroads of Peace, the Silk Highway, and the Zangezur Hall,” says Marut Vanyan, an area journalist. “However to date none of this appears to be like American.”

This is likely one of the “unendable wars” Trump claims to have delivered to an finish, in an settlement between Armenia and its long-time enemy Azerbaijan.

The plan envisages US firms shifting in beneath a 99-year deal to develop the 43km (26-mile) route via Armenian territory alongside its whole border with Iran, in a hall linking Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan.

A railway, motorway and pipelines are all promised and Trump has spoken of firms spending “some huge cash, which can economically profit all three of our nations”.

On the bottom, the size of the problem is evident. This transport hyperlink should be constructed from scratch, however political hurdles far outweigh financial points.

Trump’s intervention may reshape the geopolitics of a area that Russia claims as its sphere of affect. Hardliners in Tehran are additionally frightened and are threatening to dam the undertaking.

The Tripp proposal is essential to ending a battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan that began over Nagorno-Karabakh, part of Azerbaijan traditionally populated by Armenians.

In 2023, Azerbaijan recaptured the disputed area, and nearly your entire Armenian inhabitants fled their properties. This was not the primary such expulsion on this battle: within the Nineteen Nineties over 500,000 Azerbaijanis have been displaced.

Vanyan was amongst those that fled their properties in 2023.

Having escaped the struggle zone, he settled in Armenia’s southern province of Syunik simply when it turned a brand new hotspot between the 2 neighbours.

Azerbaijan demanded that Armenia give a part of this area as a “hall” to its exclave of Nakhchivan. The area is also referred to as Zangezur, and the proposal was branded the “Zangezur hall”.

However when Armenia rejected the demand, clashes erupted on the border, and plenty of feared a brand new struggle.

Then, in August 2025, Trump unexpectedly broke the impasse. Internet hosting Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the White Home, he supplied an answer designed to fulfill each side.

A future Trump route guarantees each “unimpeded connectivity” for Azerbaijan and “full respect” for Armenia’s sovereignty. The route will likely be managed by a non-public US firm.

Each nations’ leaders say the Washington assembly has restored peace of their area and reward Trump’s intervention as a recreation changer.

However the doc they signed is skinny on element and gives no timeline for the Tripp to be constructed.

US mediation turned doable due to Russia’s weakened place within the South Caucasus.

For years, the Kremlin labored in the direction of re-opening the route that now bears an American president’s title.

And though Russia’s proposal for its FSB border troops to protect the longer term street has been rejected, they nonetheless patrol the stretch of the Armenia‑Iran border that has been chosen for the Trump route.

Because the BBC filmed on the bottom, a Russian FSB patrol car pulled up in entrance of us. A younger man in uniform requested us a few drone filming the border from above. We stated it was not ours and the Russian patrol moved on.

Armenia’s Syunik area can also be a key hub for its exports, and businessmen and vehicles from Iran are a well-known sight. Iranian building firms are constructing a brand new bridge that can cross the longer term Tripp.

The Aras River that separates the Islamic Republic and Armenia is the very line the route is about comply with.

It’s unclear how the US and Iranian firms will co-exist in Armenia, given current US involvement within the Israel‑Iran struggle.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme chief threatened to show Tripp into “a grave for Donald Trump’s mercenaries”, however Iran’s authorities has been extra measured.

Iran is a pal and neighbour to each Caucasus nations and Armenia has advised Tehran the undertaking isn’t a menace to its pursuits.

There’s additionally elevated European presence in southern Armenia.

France has lately began promoting weapons to Yerevan and has opened a consulate in Syunik. An EU monitoring mission is deployed to the area, and the longer term Trump route is seen by the EU as a part of a “center hall” linking it with Central Asia and China and bypassing Russia.

Turkey can also be keen to learn from a gap created by waning Russian affect.

Ankara is in talks with Armenia to normalise relations and has voiced assist for Tripp, which might create a direct hyperlink from Turkey to Azerbaijan via its exclave.

Armenia’s authorities seems calm concerning the numerous competing pursuits. It needs to turn out to be a “Crossroads of Peace” the place all regional powers will co-operate.

“They are saying every thing will likely be tremendous and that there will likely be billions of euros of funding, new roads and commerce with Iran, America, Europe, Turkey and Azerbaijan,” Marut Vanyan says with an incredulous smile.

A proper peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia has not but been signed, however one factor is evident: for the reason that Washington assembly, not a single shot has been fired on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

Trump’s intervention has introduced not less than non permanent reduction to those that for years have lived in concern of renewed combating.