Baku: Kars-Akhalkalaki railway to be built by 2007
Monday, August 8, 2005, #146 (0920)
The Messenger - Georgia's English Language Daily
By M. Alkhazashvili
The Kars-Akhalkalaki railway project connecting Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan via rails has been a long lasting topic for discussion, but only recently became an issue of serious proposals.
Now the Azerbaijan Ministry of Transport has stated that Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway will be opened in a year and a half and will cost USD 400 million, the paper Rezonansi reports.
[...]
[...] connecting Turkey's railway with the South Caucasus railway system will be profitable not only for Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also for the countries that could use the line for transit. And despite the profitability of the line, the construction of the small length of track (98 km, 68 in Turkey and 30 in Georgia) has been delayed for many years.
The main reason for this is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the fact that an operating line once existed between Turkey and Armenia. A group of U.S. congressmen are arguing that ignoring this line would be a major setback for the treatment of Armenia and for the peace process.
As a result, they have proposed a bill titled South Caucasus Integration and Open Railroads Act of 2005 [...].
The stated goal of the bill (H.R. 3361) is "To prohibit United States assistance to develop or promote any rail connections or railway-related connections that traverse or connect Baku, Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Kars, Turkey, and that specifically exclude cities in Armenia."
Despite the censure by the American legislators, officials in Baku, Tbilisi and Ankara appear unfazed. [...].
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
The Messenger - Georgia's English Language Daily
By M. Alkhazashvili
The Kars-Akhalkalaki railway project connecting Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan via rails has been a long lasting topic for discussion, but only recently became an issue of serious proposals.
Now the Azerbaijan Ministry of Transport has stated that Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway will be opened in a year and a half and will cost USD 400 million, the paper Rezonansi reports.
[...]
[...] connecting Turkey's railway with the South Caucasus railway system will be profitable not only for Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also for the countries that could use the line for transit. And despite the profitability of the line, the construction of the small length of track (98 km, 68 in Turkey and 30 in Georgia) has been delayed for many years.
The main reason for this is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the fact that an operating line once existed between Turkey and Armenia. A group of U.S. congressmen are arguing that ignoring this line would be a major setback for the treatment of Armenia and for the peace process.
As a result, they have proposed a bill titled South Caucasus Integration and Open Railroads Act of 2005 [...].
The stated goal of the bill (H.R. 3361) is "To prohibit United States assistance to develop or promote any rail connections or railway-related connections that traverse or connect Baku, Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Kars, Turkey, and that specifically exclude cities in Armenia."
Despite the censure by the American legislators, officials in Baku, Tbilisi and Ankara appear unfazed. [...].
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 4:17 AM
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