The Umut Bridge — "Bridge of Hope" — spans the Aras River at the point where Azerbaijan meets Turkey, connecting the Nakhchivan exclave to the Turkish city of Iğdır. It opened in 1992 at a moment of acute crisis, when the conflict with Armenia had severed Nakhchivan's overland links and the exclave depended on this bridge for its economic survival. Today a regular bus route runs Nakhchivan–Istanbul via the bridge, a journey of around 24 hours.
The bridge is a modest crossing rather than an architectural landmark, but its political significance is considerable. Azerbaijan and Turkey share a "one nation, two states" solidarity, and this span is the physical expression of that bond — the only land border the two countries share. In 2023, Baku and Ankara agreed in principle to construct a railway line through Sadarak to deepen the connection further. Standing at the crossing point and looking at the Aras River below, with Iran a few kilometres to the south and Armenia to the north, you are at one of the more geopolitically compressed spots on earth.