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Daily Critical of Armenia's Stance on Turkish-Georgian-Azeri Railway Project

Posted on: Saturday, 2 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Arman Karapetyan in Armenian newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak on 1 July headlined "Kars-Akhalkalaki should not be built"

Turkish Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan's visit to Baku which started yesterday [30 June] could be considered one of the regular visits of Turkish officials to Baku, if not one circumstance. Yesterday Turkey's official circles confirmed information that the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi- Baku railway is one of the main issues that will be discussed in Baku. The Armenian authorities have been continuing to keep silence about the activity on the implementation of this project that has been noticed for the last period.

Generally speaking, neither the authorities nor the opposition in Armenia can fully realize the consequences that the construction of the said railway may have for our country. This is not an accidental fact in the country which for more than seven years has been guided by a slogan: "National interests are higher than the Constitution".

At present, a situation occurs when our enmity with Turkey is more important for us than economic, military and strategic interests of the country. After all, an enmity with Turkey brings significant dividends to the authorities of our country. By preserving this enmity, [Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan confirms loyalty to Russia, France and anti-Turkey forces of Europe because it is important for these forces to have the Armenian factor in their hands when settling problems with Turkey.

[Passage omitted: political parties' approach on the issue is similar]

An enmity with Armenia is hampering Turkey's desire to settle one of its main political problems, that is, to guarantee a certain economic and political presence in the Turkic-speaking states of Central Asia. The fulfilment of this task is impossible without the railway communication, and the only railway that connects Turkey with Central Asia goes via Armenia [Kars-Gyumri].

Today to watch calmly the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway means to lose the only strong economic lever of influence on Turkey, i.e. our railway. Moreover, for Armenia the construction of the new railway [via Georgia] means losing the status of the only railway corridor that connects the West with the East. This is a political aspect, but there is also an economic one.

The opening of the Armenian-Turkish border could have brought billions of dollars to Armenia, about half of which could have been the profit received from the operation of the [Kars-Gyumri] railway. The construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway will reduce Armenia's profit twice. However, the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway will significantly improve Turkey's political position in its relations with Armenia. After this railway is put into operation, accusations of Turkey's blockade of Armenia will weaken as Turkey may say that it sees no obstacles for the transportation of the Armenian cargo via the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway and it does not hinder the transportation of the Armenian cargo via the Bosporus or the Georgian-Turkish highway.

[Passage omitted: criticism of Armenia's policy on the Baku- Ceyhan oil pipeline; background details on the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway]

In this situation the main task of Armenia's foreign policy should be hampering the further development of the said railway's construction and, if it is necessary, making certain compromises for this. Otherwise we will lose all our levers of pressure on Turkey.

[Passage omitted: reiteration of similar ideas]

We have repeatedly mentioned that the railway communication with Central Asia is of military and strategic significance for the USA as it has got a problem of strengthening its military presence in Central Asia and Afghanistan. It is impossible to settle this problem without the railway communication: the "front" should have the railway communication with the rear area. It is clear that the Russian railway [to Central Asia] may not contribute to the settlement of this problem, but the Armenian railway is very convenient in this case. However, if Armenia is indifferent, Turkey may involve the USA in the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway, as it was the case with the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

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