Armenian and Azerbaijani telecom operators sign internet transit deal

By Lia Avagyan

Two of the region's main internet carriers have agreed to route traffic across each other's territories, in a rare commercial tie-up between countries that lack a signed peace treaty.

Armenia's Telecom Armenia and Azerbaijan's AzerTelecom signed a bilateral agreement to carry transit internet traffic through the two countries' networks on commercial terms, Telecom Armenia's press service said on Monday.

The Armenian operator described itself as a leading regional transit carrier and said the deal expands the number of countries to which it supplies international traffic, with transit to Azerbaijan running over its own infrastructure. Both companies said the agreement is meant to diversify communication routes in the region, improve the reliability of telecom networks, and deepen sectoral cooperation.

AzerTelecom is one of Azerbaijan's main backbone operators, connecting the country to the global internet. Founded in 2008, the company operates within Azerconnect Group, part of the international NEQSOL Holding, which has interests in energy, telecommunications, technology, and construction. In its own statement, AzerTelecom said it would provide transit toward Armenia over its infrastructure and broaden the reach of its services.

For Azerbaijan, the arrangement is intended to carry internet traffic between the country's mainland and its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia, according to Aram Barseghyan, deputy director of Telecom Armenia. He told RFE/RL's Armenian service, Azatutyun, that the Azerbaijani side would pay for the service. He declined to disclose the amount, calling it a commercial matter. The physical connections would be made at Kornidzor in southern Armenia and at Yeraskh near the border with Nakhichevan. Barseghyan said the National Security Service must approve the link before it goes ahead.

The announcement comes as Yerevan and Baku continue to discuss trade, transit, and economic cooperation under a peace agreement that has been initialed but not signed. Barseghyan said the deal follows the logic of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the transit corridor envisioned through Armenia's south, though the agreement is not formally part of that project. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly said that the route will include transit infrastructure across Armenian territory, such as fiber-optic cables and a gas pipeline.

A polarized reaction

The deal set off sharply divided commentary online almost immediately. One camp warned that Azerbaijan would gain sweeping control, or even surveillance capability, over Armenian internet traffic. Another argued the reverse — that the arrangement leaves Azerbaijan dependent on Armenian infrastructure. Information security specialists said neither claim rested on technical evidence.

Artur Papyan, an information security specialist and co-founder of CyberHUB-AM, said his media-monitoring tool had registered a sharp rise in polarized narratives around the agreement. He argued that Armenia is already a significant regional transit hub and that Telecom Armenia is a major international provider. By his account, most of the internet traffic reaching Armenia passes through the country's infrastructure toward Iran and onward to the Middle East without entering the local network at all. Papyan said claims of Azerbaijani control were unfounded, but added that he did not want to rush to conclusions.

Telecom Armenia offered a similar account. Barseghyan said the Azerbaijani side would gain access only to the cable itself — which he put at a capacity of 100 gigabits per second — and not to the data passing through it. The traffic would not enter the Armenian network. He compared the setup to existing cross-border links with Georgia, Turkey, and Iran: each side brings its own cable, the two are spliced at the frontier, and traffic runs from one point to the other. The channel would follow the border from Kornidzor to Yeraskh rather than pass through populated areas.

Barseghyan said the arrangement does not involve internet flowing into or out of Armenia. He described it as a transit channel that Azerbaijan would use for its own internet, and said Telecom Armenia would not sell any Armenian data. He called the deal a major strategic advantage for Armenia.

Some IT specialists raised the opposite concern. As a general technical point, they noted that routing traffic through a neighboring carrier could, in theory, create openings to redirect data or to tie users' IP addresses to specific individuals.