Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 19 2008
Additional Stretch of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway to Withdraw Nakchivan
from Transport Blockade: Head of Turkish Municipality
19.01.08 08:56
Azerbaijan, Baku, 19 January /corr. Trend E.Huseynov / The
construction of the railway line from Nakchivan to Turkey’s province
of Kars, will help in withdrawing this far region of Azerbaijan from
the transport blockade, said the Head of the Turkish province.
Surrounded by Iran, Turkey and Armenia, the Azerbaijan’s region of
Nakchivan, with the population of 384,500, has been deprived of the
railway and car link with Azerbaijan since the beginning of 1990.
Earlier the links were carried out via the territory of Armenia,
after which a conflict started in 1988. In December 2007, a passenger
bus route was opened via the territory of Iran. Before that, the
population of Nakchivan could only come to Baku through the air
links.
`If the 215km railway stretch from Nakchivan to Kars via the
territory of Turkey’s Igdir province is constructed, it will revive
the transport artery of the Autonomous Republic,’ the Head of Igdir
Municipality, Nureddin Aras, reported to Trend on 17 January.
The agreement on the construction of 105km railway-
`Baku-Tbilisi-Kars’ beyond Armenia, was signed at the end of
November. The cost of the project is $422mln, but after considering
the infrastructure it is assumed that it will be nearly $600mln.
`Nakchivan’s center is connected with border of Turkey through
Sadarak railway stretch, but later the line breaks off. If this line
is extended up to Kars, it will revive the economy of Nakchivan and
Igdir. This is a very perspective construction, considering that the
railway corridor will connect Baku with the countries of Central
Asia, and Kars with the Europe,’ said the Head of the Municipality.
However, Aras stated that the feasibility study for the
Nakchivan-Kars railway project is absent, and it is not worthy to
expect support from Turkey for this project because this initiative
is not considered in Turkey.
`Earlier, the importance of such project was presented to the Turkish
officials, but there was no reaction,’ Aras said. He considers that
Azerbaijan may be more interested in financing the project. `The
economic support from the Azerbaijani side would be expedient,’ he
said adding that he is aware of the positive attitude of Nakchivan
and Baku, which supports the idea of this construction.
Yet, it was failure to receive the comments in the press-service of
Nakchivan and Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Transport.
Azerbaijani economist expert, Sabit Bagirov, considers that before
speaking about the expediency of the project, it needs to consider
its profitability. `If the studies confirm that the profitability is
high, it is possible to realize it,’ the Head of the Center for
Political and Economic Studies, Sabit Bagirov, reported to Trend on
18 January. The expert says that it needs to consider this project,
from the economic and political point of view.
Of 105km Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway beyond Armenia, 76km passes via
the territory of Turkey and 29km via Georgia. Azerbaijan will
allocate $200mln credit for the construction of the Georgian section
of the railway (for a period of 25 years, with 1% annual rate).
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries appeared in
1988 due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including the
Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighboring districts. Since
1992 to the present time, these territories have been under Armenian
occupation. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire
agreement which ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are holding the peaceful
negotiations.
Despite the conflict, the air flights `Baku-Nakchivan’ are carried
out via the territory of Armenia.