TBILISI AND BAKU QUARREL OVER CARGOS
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Dec 8 2004
Georgian businessmen hit by a row over whether freight cars from
Azerbaijan are destined for Armenia
By Lela Iremashvili in Tbilisi and Rufat Abbasov in Baku
The Azerbaijani authorities have detained more than 900 freight
railcars travelling to Georgia in the past month, following suspicions
that they were actually en route to Baku’s long-standing enemy,
Armenia.
The row has not only cost Georgian businesses millions of US
dollars but has also damaged the traditionally good relations
between Baku and Tbilisi, which were recently cemented further by
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Most of the freight containers, containing diesel oil, flour, liquefied
gas, grain and other items, had travelled by sea from Central Asia to
Baku, where they continued by rail. Many were heading for Georgia’s
Black Sea ports of Batumi and Poti and onwards to European markets.
While some of the freight cars were allowed to cross the frontier
last week, a significant number are still stuck at the Beyuk-Kasik
border crossing. Last month, only cargoes originating in Azerbaijan
were allowed to cross, without any explanation from Baku why the
others should be stopped.
However, Azerbaijani ambassador Ramiz Hasanov was invited to the
Georgian foreign ministry to discuss the issue, he told the media that
Baku suspected that freight was passing through Georgia to Armenia,
in contravention of an agreement his government signed with Tbilisi
in June forbidding the transit of goods to a third country “contrary
to their national interests”.
“Azerbaijan has its own national interests in connection with this
issue,” Hasanov said, referring to its bitter dispute with Armenia over
Nagorny Karabakh. “How would [Georgia] react if Azerbaijan delivered
fuel or other cargo to [the disputed territories] Abkhazia and South
Ossetia? That would damage the national interests of Georgia.”
Azerbaijani prime minister Artur Rasizade told IWPR that he had
evidence that several freight carriages transporting oil products
were indeed intended for Armenia.
Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania has tried to play down the
incident, telling journalists that he saw no reason to “dramatise”
the situation. “We are working with the Azerbaijani side and I am
sure that we won’t have any problems,” he said.
In an attempt to resolve the situation, Georgian Railways’ commercial
director Ramiz Giorgadze travelled to Baku, while officials from the
Azerbaijani customs committee visited Tbilisi and checked the freight
cars’ documentation. Those that were given the all clear by customs
officials were immediately allowed to cross into Georgia.
Georgian officials said that none of the detained freight cars were
travelling to Armenia, although David Onoprishvili, chairman of
Georgian Railways, conceded that this had happened before.
The Georgian customs department told IWPR that the issue had only
become relevant after the inter-governmental agreement signed by the
two nations came into force on November 22.
Customs officials have said that Georgia would no longer re-export
cargos to Armenia, in line with Azerbaijani requests.
However, Georgia’s deputy minister of economic development Geno
Muradian argued that there was no legal basis for stopping most of
the cars, even if they did proceed to Armenia.
“Wheat and oil are not military cargos, and cannot threaten the
security of a country. If they end up in Armenia, it won’t be a
tragedy,” he said.
“For a long time transit, cargos from Azerbaijan have not officially
been going to Armenia,” Muradian went on. “But business has its own
laws, and a businessman who receives goods in Georgia will find ways
to send them on to Armenia if he wants to.”
Officials in both countries are now debating what harm the row has
done to relations.
Georgian economic expert Giorgi Khukhasvili said, “Azerbaijan is our
strategic partner, our countries are fully integrated with regard to
transit shipments, and without Azerbaijan, Georgia’s transit functions
are worth nothing.”
However, Baku political analyst Rasmi Agayev argued in an article in
the Obozrevatel newspaper that the two nations’ strategic partnership
“is no more than a declaration”, and criticised Tbilisi for its “double
standards” in not supporting Azerbaijan over the Karabakh dispute.
Georgian businesses are being tight-lipped about what the dispute
has cost them, although losses are believed to run into millions
of dollars.
Vano Mtvraralashvili, head of the Union of Producers, Importers and
Consumers of Oil Products, said many Georgian importers whose products
had been delayed on the border for a month had asked him for help.
For example, said Mtvraralashvili, one firm was trying to import 1,200
tonnes of diesel oil from Turkmenistan, where prices were cheaper.
Despite having all the documentation to prove that the oil was intended
for Georgia’s domestic market, it was not being allowed through.
“If the Azerbaijanis had doubts about Georgian companies, then why
didn’t they stop the cargoes on the Turkmen-Azerbaijani border?”
complained Mtvraralashvili. “Now they’ve paid Baku fees for a transit
that they can’t complete.”
In any case, he said, Armenia would not be bereft of petroleum products
because it also used other transit routes.
Both governments now say they are confident that full freight traffic
will be restored in the next few days. But the deeper implications
of this row may have a much more lasting effect.
Lela Iremashvili is a correspondent with Black Sea Press news agency
in Tbilisi. Rufat Abbasov is a correspondent with Reuters in Baku.