TURKEY DOWNPLAYS U.S. FUNDING BAN ON ‘ANTI-ARMENIAN’ RAIL LINK
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 21 2006
Turkey on Wednesday played down the significance of a likely legal
ban on U.S. involvement in its plans to build a rail link with Georgia
and Azerbaijan that would bypass Armenia. Official Ankara said at the
same time that it has begun exploring possible Armenian participation
in the far-reaching regional project.
A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved
a legal amendment last week that forbids the U.S. Export-Import Bank
from financing construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway
estimated to cost $400 million. The measure, strongly advocated by
Armenian-American lobbying groups, is likely to be passed by the full
House. Similar legislation is also expected to be debated in the U.S.
Senate.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan told RFE/RL that U.S.
restrictions could not thwart the project’s implementation. "I don’t
think so," he said. "I think the three countries have enough funds.
So we can finance the project in one way or another." Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey are keen to start work on the railway "as soon as
possible," he said.
A senior official at the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport, Sadreddin
Mamedov, likewise dismissed the congressional measure at the weekend.
"If American companies do not finance the project, we will find other
sources [of financing]: Japanese banks, the Asian Development Bank
or somebody else," he told the Baku daily "Ekho." Besides, he said,
Azerbaijan has "sufficient resources" to foot a large part of the
construction bill.
Still, Turkish media reports suggest that Ankara is now willing to
show more flexibility on the issue. According to the official Anatolia
news agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliev in Baku on Tuesday that "Armenia can also join
these projects if it wants."
Tan confirmed that Gul raised the issue with Aliev but made it clear
that Armenian involvement in the regional railroad is conditional on a
solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The fact of the matter is
that we have to include Armenia into the project after the solution
of the problem," he said. "That was the discussion which took place
between Aliev and Gul." The Azerbaijani leader was "positive" about
the Turkish proposal, added the official.
Armenian officials argue that there already exists a railroad
connecting Turkey to the South Caucasus via Armenia and that the
Turkish government should reactivate it instead of spending hundreds
of millions of dollars on building a new one. "The Turkish Daily News"
quoted on Wednesday an unnamed official in Ankara as agreeing that
the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi link will make no economic sense if
Turkey lifts its economic blockade of Armenia.
"But there are some realities on the ground which can not be
ignored," countered Tan. "There is a problem and that problem should
be solved. Armenia must exert some efforts and try to find ways to
solve it."
A Karabakh settlement is also a key Turkish precondition for a broader
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations. In addition, successive
Turkish governments have demanded that Yerevan stop campaigning for
international recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire. Gul reportedly stated in Baku that the establishment
of diplomatic relations between the two estranged nations and reopening
of their border is therefore "not a subject of discussions" at present.
Senior Turkish and Armenian diplomats have held a series of
confidential meetings over the past year but failed to make any
progress towards a Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. Tan stood by his
earlier statement that more such talks are possible in the coming
months. "We have talked to them and I think we will," said the Turkish
Foreign Ministry official.