A railway station deserted on Trump’s road to peace where global interests collide

An abandoned station, a few rusty cars and a dozen meters of track are all that remains of a Soviet railway in Southern Armenia.

It may seem unlikely, but this extent of the abandoned way in the South Caucasus was exploited to become a symbol of peace negotiated by the American president, on the Trump road for international peace and prosperity, or tripp.

The fragments of the head of a monument to a communist hero. A female statue is missing an arm.

“We are on the Trump road, also known as the Carrefour de la Paix, the Silk Road and the Zangezur corridor,” explains Marut Vanyan, local journalist. “But so far, none of this looks American.”

It is one of the “essential wars” that Trump claims to have ended, in an agreement between Armenia and his longtime enemy Azerbaijan.

The plan plans for American companies to move under a 99 -year agreement to develop the 43 km (26 mile) road through Armenian territory along its border with Iran, in a corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan.

A railroad, highways and pipelines are all promised and Trump has spoken of companies spending “a lot of money, which will benefit our three nations economically”.

On the ground, the scale of the challenge is clear. This transport link should be constructed from zero, but political obstacles prevail from afar on economic problems.

Trump’s intervention could reshape the geopolitics of a region that Russia claims as its sphere of influence. The backwards in Tehran are also worried and threaten to block the project.

Tripp’s proposal is the key to putting an end to a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan which started above Nagorno-Karabakh, part of Azerbaijan historically populated by the Armenians.

In 2023, Azerbaijan took over the contested region, and practically the entire Armenian population fled their houses. It was not the first expulsion of this type in this conflict: in the 1990s, more than 500,000 Azerbaijani were moved.

Vanyan was one of those who fled their houses in 2023.

Having escaped the war zone, he settled in the southern province of Syunik of Armenia, just when he became a new hotspot between the two neighbors.

Azerbaijan demanded that Armenia will give part of this region as a “corridor” to its exclave by Nakhchian. The region is also known as Zangezur, and the proposal was marked the “Zangezur Corridor”.

But when Armenia rejected demand, clashes broke out on the border and much feared a new war.

Then, in August 2025, Trump unexpectedly broke the dead end. Housing the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House, he offered a solution designed to satisfy both sides.

A future Trump route promises both “unhindered connectivity” for Azerbaijan and “full respect” for the sovereignty of Armenia. The route will be managed by a private American company.

The leaders of the two nations say that the Washington meeting restored peace in their region and rents Trump’s intervention as a game changer.

But the document they have signed is thin on the details and offers no chronology for the construction of the tripp.

American mediation has become possible due to the weakened position of Russia in the South Caucasus.

For years, the Kremlin has worked to reopen the route which now bears the name of an American president.

And although Russia’s proposal for its FSB border troops to keep the road future has been rejected, they still patrol the section of the Armenia-Iranian border which was chosen for the Trump road.

While the BBC turned on the ground, a Russian vehicle of FSB patrol stopped in front of us. A young man in uniform asked us questions about a drone spinning the border from above. We said it was not ours and that the Russian patrol continued.

The Syunik region of Armenia is also a key center for its exports, and the businessmen and Iran trucks are a familiar show. Iranian construction companies are building a new bridge that will cross the future tripp.

The Aras river which separates the Islamic Republic and Armenia is the very line that the route is followed.

We do not know how American and Iranian companies will coexist in Armenia, given the recent involvement of the United States in the War of Israel-Iran.

A senior advisor to the supreme chief of Iran threatened to transform Tripp into “a grave for the mercenaries of Donald Trump”, but the Iranian government was more measured.

Iran is a friend and a neighbor of the two Caucasus nations and that Armenia told Tehran that the project was not a threat to its interests.

There is also an increased European presence in Southern Armenia.

France recently started selling weapons in Yerevan and opened a consulate in Syunik. An EU surveillance mission is deployed in the region, and the future Trump road is seen by the EU as part of an “average corridor” connecting it to Central Asia and China and bypassing Russia.

Turkey is also impatient to benefit from an opening created by the decrease in Russian influence.

Ankara is in talks with Armenia to normalize relations and expressed its support for Tripp, which would create a direct link from Turkey to Azerbaijan via its exclave.

The government of Armenia seems calm to the various competing interests. He wants to become a “crossroads of peace” where all the regional powers will cooperate.

“They say that everything will be fine and that there will be billions of euros in investment, new roads and trade with Iran, America, Europe, Turkey and Azerbaijan,” said Marut Vanyan with an incredulous smile.

An official peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia has not yet been signed, but one thing is clear: from the Washington meeting, not a single blow has been drawn on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

Trump’s intervention has brought at least temporary relief to those who for years have lived in the fear of renewed fighting.