THE NEW "PROJECT OF THE CENTURY" AGAINST ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net - The three parties were represented by the deputy Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan Musa Panakhov, deputy director-general of the administration of constructing railways, roads, ports and airports of Turkey Akhmet Kushkhanoghlu and the deputy Minister of economic development of Georgia Kakha Sekhniashvili.

It should be noted that the issues of transport in that ministry are under the jurisdiction of another deputy minister - the head of the Georgian Union of Armenians Genrikh Muradyan who openly shows his negative attitude towards the project that removes Armenia from the regional transport chain. Genrikh Muradyan was of course not sent to Baku. Kakha Sekhiniashvili who went to Baku instead of him, called the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway project the "project of the century".

The Baku meeting of the working group is the second one. The first meeting was held in Tbilisi last year. During the Tbilisi meeting the working group prepared a plan of actions. In Baku the working group heard the report on the work done and studied the marketing research. The initiators of the project expect that the Kars - Akhalkalaki railway will transport 2-3 million tons of cargo during the first year and in the course of time the railway will transport up to 8 million tons. Perhaps the most important decision made during the meeting was the definition of the form of the structure that will be in charge for the project implementation. Instead of a stock company, the participants of the meeting preferred to create a consortium with equal share of the three parties. It is supposed that the consortium will deal both with the construction and with the exploitation of the railway.

However there is still a problem which is not solved - where to get money? The members of the working group do not conceal that they hope to get credits from international financial structures. But it should be taken into account that international structures are against the activities of Azerbaijan and Turkey aimed at transport isolation of Armenia. Meanwhile, it is quite clear that isolation of Armenia is one of the objectives of the project as a result of which Armenia will lose its status of a transit country. Thus, we can conclude that international donors will not be eager to fund that politically and economically doubtful project. It is known that the transportation of cargos by Kars-Akhalkalaki railway will cost twice as much as by the existing but non-functioning Kars-Gyumri railway. The cost of the project is still not fixed. The Turkish party is responsible for working out the final technical and economic assessment of the project. The estimation of the project will be finished by the end of the year. At the end of the year it will be clear how realizable the project is.

The attempts to breathe new life into the project that seems to be dead have recently become more intensive. The perspectives of the project mostly depend on the fact whether Ankara will bear the pressure of the West that insists on raising the blockade of Armenia. The striving of Turkey for entering the European Union is not in line with the policy of Erdogan's government. If however Ankara agrees to open the borderline with Armenia for the sake of entering the European Union, it will be totally senseless to spend hundred millions of dollars for the construction of Kars - Akhalkalaki railway.

Artyom Yerkanyan