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

A deserted station, and some rusty vehicles and dozens of track are all the remaining Soviet railway in southern Armenia.

It may seem unlikely, but this abandoned extension in the southern Caucasus has been exploited to become a symbol of the peace that the US President has mediated, on the Trump Road for Peace and International Female, or Tripp.

Air fragments are scattered around a memorial to a Communist hero. A female statue misses his arm.

“We are on Trump’s road, also known as the peace crossing, the Silk Road, and the Zantalsor Corridor,” says Marut Vanian, local journalist. “But so far, none of this looks American.”

This is one of the “unprecedented wars” that Trump claims to have ended, in an agreement between Armenia and its long -standing Azerbaijan.

The plan is that American companies will move under a 99 -year -old deal to develop a 43 km (26 km) road through Armenian territory along their entire borders with Iran, in a corridor linking Azerbaijan to the division of Nakhshevan.

All railways, highway and pipelines are promised, and Trump talks about companies that spend “a lot of money, which will benefit economically all our three countries.”

On the ground, the size of the challenge is clear. This transfer link must be built from zero point, but political obstacles significantly outweigh economic issues.

Trump’s intervention can reshape the political geography of a region that Russia claims to have its influence. The militants in Tehran also feel anxious and threaten to prevent the project.

The Tripp proposal is the key to ending the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that started on Nagorno Karabakh, a historical part of Azerbaijan by the Armenians.

In 2023, Azerbaijan regained the disputed area, and the Armenian residents almost provided their homes. This was not the first expulsion of its kind in this conflict: In the 1990s, more than 500,000 Azerbaijani was displaced.

Vanian was among those who fled their homes in 2023.

After escaping from the war zone, he settled in the South South County of Armenia when it became a new hot point between the neighbors.

Azerbaijan demanded that Armenia give part of this region as a “corridor” to excite Nakhshivan. The area is also known as Zangezur, and the proposal was described as the “Zangezur Corridor”.

But when Armenia rejected the request, clashes erupted on the border, and many feared a new war.

Then, in August 2025, Trump was unexpectedly destroyed. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nicole Pashinyan hosted a solution designed to satisfy both sides.

Trump in the future is a “underestimated connection” to Azerbaijan and “full respect” by Armenia. The path will be managed by a private American company.

The leaders of the two states say that the Washington meeting has regained peace in their region and praised Trump’s intervention as a changing games.

But the document they signed is thin on the details and does not provide any timetable to be built.

American mediation has become possible due to the weakness of Russia in the southern Caucasus.

For years, the Kremlin worked to reopen the road now bearing the name of the American President.

Although Russia’s FSB border’s proposal to guard the future road has been rejected, they are still patrolling the borders of Armenia Iran, which was chosen for the Trump Road.

When the BBC was photographed on the ground, a Russian FSB periodic vehicle pulled in front of us. We asked a young man wearing an uniform about a drone to photograph the border from the top. We said that it was not our patrol and the Russian patrol moved.

The Syunik region in Armenia is also a major center for its exports, and businessmen and trucks from Iran are a familiar scene. Iranian construction companies build a new bridge crossing Tripp in the future.

The Aras River, which separates the Islamic Republic and Armenia is the line that was placed on the road.

It is not clear how American and Iranian companies in Armenia will coexist, given the recent participation of the United States in the Iranian Iran war.

One of the senior advisers to Iran’s supreme leader threatened to turn Tripp to “a grave of Donald Trump’s mercenaries”, but the Iranian government was measured.

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

There is also an increase in European in southern Armenia.

France recently started selling weapons to Yerevan and opened a consulate in Sionik. The task of monitoring the European Union in the region is deployed, and the European Union watches the Trump Road in the future as part of the “Middle Corridor” linking it to Central Asia and China and bypassing Russia.

Türkiye is also eager to take advantage of the opening created by the Russian influence.

Ankara is in talks with Armenia to normalize relations and expressed its support for TRIPP, which would create a direct link from Türkiye to Azerbaijan by exploring it.

The Armenia government appears quiet about different competing interests. She wants to become a “crossroads of peace” where all regional powers cooperate.

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

An official peace treaty has not yet been signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but there is one clear thing: given that the Washington meeting, no single bullet was fired on the borders of Armenia Azerbaijan.

Trump’s intervention brought at least a temporary comfort to those who lived for years for fear of renewed fighting.