CAUCASIAN COUNTRIES DELIVER ANOTHER BLOW AT RUSSIAN IMPERIALISTS
Kavkaz Center, Turkey
Oct 15 2006
The 8-year-old Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railroad Project moves up in the
agenda. The reason is that the Armenian lobby in the United States
has blocked loans to this project in the U.S. Senate. Immediately
afterwards, the fact that Russia, a neocolonial power and master
in Armenia, is about to impose an embargo on Georgia, also brings
another light to the project. This route will be Turkey’s cheapest and
shortest access to Central Asia. Also, Georgia, immersed in economic
troubles, will become a transit center of the region with the help
of this railroad, the Turkish English newspaper Daily News reported.
The Turkish Transportation Ministry sheds light to which phase the
project is at: "The technical project of the route will be completed
at the end of 2006. In 2007, a tender will be held. and the estimated
cost of the project is 0 million."
The closure of the Turkish-Armenian border in Dogukapý in 1993 has
brought Kars economy to a standstill. Significant volumes of goods
were exported to Iraq and Syria through this gate .
The aim of the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railroad project is to expand
the trade volume among Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. This route
will bypass Dogukapý meaning Armenia, the country that has troubles
with Turkey and Azerbaijan, and end in Akhalkalaki, a small city in
Georgia’s southern region. From Akhalkalaki onwards to Tbilisi, the
existing railroad route will be connected to the network expanding
to the entire Caucasus.
For the Turkish and Azeri sides, this project is not only an economic
project but each has a political goal attached to it. While both
countries plan to have access to a huge market of 0 billion, at the
same time, they consider cornering Armenia on issues such as occupation
of Nagorno-Karabakh and the alleged "genocide". Also, Georgia plans
to become a new transit route to the Caucasus just like Armenia.
Several Kars businessmen insist that the project of the century is
the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railroad, not the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
This project means an alternative route that would give them access
to the outside world.
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