AZE.US
The South Caucasus is beginning to move beyond the old logic in which outside powers largely set the rules, according to Farhad Mammadov, chairman of the Center for South Caucasus Studies.
Speaking on the YouTube channel News of the Caucasus, Mammadov said the region is increasingly starting to act in its own interests rather than as a passive arena for the ambitions of others.
In his view, this shift is becoming visible through a growing convergence of interests among Azerbaijan, Georgia and, increasingly, Armenia. He argued that this is not about rhetoric, but about geography, economics and political necessity.
Mammadov said the region is being pushed toward a more pragmatic formula built around peace, major infrastructure projects, communications and normalization. As those interests begin to overlap, he believes the South Caucasus becomes more of a subject in international affairs and less of an object shaped by stronger external players.
He linked that trend to Azerbaijan’s broader regional approach, including the strategic importance of President Ilham Aliyev’s recent visit to Georgia and the continued relevance of the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace track.
According to Mammadov, Azerbaijan and Georgia have already helped define much of the region’s East-West geopolitical and geo-economic role through infrastructure, connectivity and responsible project implementation. But he said the larger point now is that the whole region has an opportunity to move toward a more self-directed model.
That, in his reading, is why it makes little sense to pit one regional route against another or treat Georgia and Armenia as alternatives. A stronger South Caucasus, he suggested, depends on both the Georgian direction and a functioning peace agenda between Baku and Yerevan.
Mammadov’s conclusion was that the region now faces a strategic choice. It can either build a framework based on mutual benefit, transport links and peace, or remain vulnerable to being used by outside powers pursuing their own agendas.
For him, the more the countries of the South Caucasus align around practical cooperation, the harder it becomes for others to define the region entirely from the outside.