MINISTER VOWS TO FOIL PLANS TO BUILD NEW RAILWAY BYPASSING ARMENIA

Mediamax news agency
30 Aug 05

Yerevan, 30 August: “Georgia and Azerbaijan have no moral right to
invest in the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway,”
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said in Yerevan today.

The Armenian foreign minister substantiated official Yerevan’s position
on this project with the fact that “there is the Kars-Gyumri railway,
and we consider it pointless to invest limited international and
domestic financial resources in the construction of a new railway”.

Oskanyan recalled that the Kars-Gyumri railway “has not been operating
solely because of Turkey’s wrong policy”. “I would like to recall that
Armenia has expressed its readiness not to use the Kars-Gyumri railway
at the initial stage but use it only to transport goods between Turkey,
Georgia and Azerbaijan,” Oskanyan said.

The foreign minister said Armenia would oppose the construction of
the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway by substantiating its approach
to the project’s international donors, in particular, the European
Union and the USA. “We have already said that it is impossible to
threaten us with this and other regional projects,” Oskanyan said.

“Even if the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway is built, Armenia will
not disappear from the map. On the contrary, we shall continue our
progressive development,” the Armenian foreign minister said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress