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Varuzhan Geghamyan, an Armenian Turkologist and co-founder of the Armenian Project NGO, reacted to the violent unrest in Kazakhstan triggered by a fuel price increase.

"Regardless of how events will unfold in Kazakhstan, one thing is for sure: the largest country in Central Asia, which is also an important transit route on the East-West line, will no longer be considered a stable zone with all the ensuing consequences,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

As a result, he stated, the search for Asia-Europe communication routes, one of which is the North-South transit route, will continue.

“This road, which runs through the entire territory of Armenia, will not only create real economic opportunities for Armenia, but also, more importantly, will partially restore the geopolitical weight of our state, thus increasing the room for maneuver in the issue of Artsakh and other issues concerning Armenia,” the expert said.

“If appropriate work had been carried out in this regard on time, the North-South route, in fact, would have been an uncontested project.

“Meanwhile, the de facto capitulant authorities of the Republic of Armenia have already ceded the most important section of the North-South route (the Goris-Kapan highway) to Azerbaijan, thus creating an artificial obstacle to the implementation of this project.

“Moreover, the capitulators prefer to open important roads for Turkey and Azerbaijan, which in reality will completely block Armenia, creating the illusion of "unblocking". When national authorities are established in Armenia, work on the North-South route should become a priority,” Geghamyan noted.