Turkey, Azerbaijan want BSEC ring highway to bypass Armenia

 May 25, 2011 - 11:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The building of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) ring highway is hampered by Turkey and Azerbaijan's attempts to build the highway bypassing Armenia, said the chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Financial-Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs.

“However, other participant countries believe that it would contradict the principles of the organization,” Gagik Minasyan told a press conference in Yerevan on May 25 .

BSEC Memorandum of Understanding for the coordinated development of the Black Sea Ring Highway provides 7140 km long highway construction. The main route will include following cities: Istanbul (Turkey), Samsun (Turkey), Trabzon (Turkey), Batumi (Georgia), Poti (Georgia), Novorossiysk (Russia), Rostov-on-Don (Russia), Taganrog (Russia), Mariupol (Ukraine), Melitopol (Ukraine), Odessa (Ukraine), Chisinau (Moldova), Bucharest (Romania), Constantza (Romania), Haskovo (Bulgaria), Edirne (Turkey), Komotini (Greece), Alexandropoulis (Greece), Istanbul (Turkey).

The Memorandum of Understanding for the coordinated development of the Black Sea Ring Highway was signed in Belgrade on April 19, 2007, and came into force on November 1, 2008.

BSEC was founded on June 5, 1998. The organization incorporates Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.