05 December 2009, 12:00
Construction of the railway Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku suspended
In case of opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, the railway Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku will lose its sense; therefore, as soon as talks were initiated on normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the construction of this road was suspended. This was stated on December 4 by Shirak Torosyan, chairman of the "Dzhavakhk" community and Armenian MP.
"The railway Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku is a political, not economic, project, as instead of this road the already existing road Kars-Gyumri could be used; however, instead of it, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia decided to spend several hundreds millions, just to keep Armenia in blockade," Mr Torosyan believes.
He has also noted that the construction of the railway Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku is also not for Georgia's benefit, since the role of the ports of Poti and Batumi will be diminished, as the "Aysor.am" Agency writes.
In the opinion of the MP, in case of opening of the border with Turkey, real equal partnership relations between Armenia and Georgia will be established; and the Georgian authorities understand that these relations will be good also for Georgia, as the economy of this country will win, as the "Panorama.am" writes.