Armenia's isolation deepens, says "Economist" magazine

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.