ARMENIA’S ISOLATION DEEPENS, SAYS "ECONOMIST" MAGAZINE

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.03.2007 16:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s isolation will deepen more and more because
Armenia does not participate in the Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars
railway project, says the report of "Economist" analytical center
February edition. "Armenia just another time occurs out of profitable
regional projects. With the beginning of railway’s functioning
Azerbaijan can transport more than 500 million tons of freight to
Turkey annually.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey already now closely cooperate in
transportation of Caspian energy resources to Turkey.

Armenia tried to hinder the railway project. There is a strong
Armenian community in the U.S.A., which could achieve a decision by
the Congress, which bans American banks and government to finance the
Baku-Kars railway construction. The magazine says that despite the
fact that Armenian side offered to reconstruct the existing Kars-Gyumri
railway and open Armenian-Turkish border with favorable customs regime,
construction of Baku-Kars railway continues.

Experts of "Economist" think that the closed borders and absence of
energy resources makes Armenia dependent on Russia very much. And the
later does not pay attention to interests of Armenia, which arouses
anger among pro-Western political figures.

"Nevertheless, the greater part of Armenian population continues
to accept Russians as security guarantee in the context of threats
proceeding from Azerbaijan and Turkey. But it is not quite clear, if
Russian will rally interfere, if say, Azerbaijan will launch military
actions in Nagorno Karabakh," the magazine writes, RFE/RL reports.