Baku–Tbilisi–Kars brings new hopes for (most of) the South Caucasus
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Tuesday, November 27
On November 21, in the once out of the way village of Marabda, three presidents stood together to inaugurate the start of construction on the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railroad.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who resigned as the president on Sunday to begin a bid for a new term in early elections, hosted Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev as they cut the ribbon on the newest project to bolster the unfulfilled promise of the Silk Road transport corridor Georgia has long hoped to be. Once the railroad is built, cargo can ride the rails from Shanghai to Calais with hardly a break in between. After a long-delayed tunnel is dug under the Bosporus, Georgia and Turkey will be have direct links to a continent they both are intent on joining. The benefits are many: the economic boost, the security guarantees which accompany the role of a transit state. The rail project will even contribute to global security, proclaimed the Azerbaijani president, by opening more options for cargo passage across Eurasia. The Russian news agency Regnum estimates the project will increase cargo turnover in Azerbaijan by 30 percent.
For Georgia, Saakashvili said, the railroad will be a “window to Europe” after losing control of the rail connection to Russia and beyond which runs through secessionist Abkhazia.
Armenian officials, meanwhile, downplay the significance of the project. Yerevan has previously had harsh words for the railway, which by Turkish and Azerbaijani design will isolate the country.
Neither country has diplomatic relations with Armenia, which fought a protracted war with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The project is of more symbolic than economic importance,” Regnum quoted one Armenian official as saying. Some skeptics have suggested any extra cargo revenue will be offset by less activity in Georgia’s seaports.
The project presented a sticky conflict of interests for Georgia, which counts the US as its top foreign ally and benefactor but Turkey and Azerbaijan as key regional trade partners. Washington opposed the railroad for bypassing Armenia.
Tbilisi has now unequivocally embraced the railroad, however, and for good reasons. When construction is complete, Georgia—and Marabda—will be that much less out of the way.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who resigned as the president on Sunday to begin a bid for a new term in early elections, hosted Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev as they cut the ribbon on the newest project to bolster the unfulfilled promise of the Silk Road transport corridor Georgia has long hoped to be. Once the railroad is built, cargo can ride the rails from Shanghai to Calais with hardly a break in between. After a long-delayed tunnel is dug under the Bosporus, Georgia and Turkey will be have direct links to a continent they both are intent on joining. The benefits are many: the economic boost, the security guarantees which accompany the role of a transit state. The rail project will even contribute to global security, proclaimed the Azerbaijani president, by opening more options for cargo passage across Eurasia. The Russian news agency Regnum estimates the project will increase cargo turnover in Azerbaijan by 30 percent.
For Georgia, Saakashvili said, the railroad will be a “window to Europe” after losing control of the rail connection to Russia and beyond which runs through secessionist Abkhazia.
Armenian officials, meanwhile, downplay the significance of the project. Yerevan has previously had harsh words for the railway, which by Turkish and Azerbaijani design will isolate the country.
Neither country has diplomatic relations with Armenia, which fought a protracted war with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The project is of more symbolic than economic importance,” Regnum quoted one Armenian official as saying. Some skeptics have suggested any extra cargo revenue will be offset by less activity in Georgia’s seaports.
The project presented a sticky conflict of interests for Georgia, which counts the US as its top foreign ally and benefactor but Turkey and Azerbaijan as key regional trade partners. Washington opposed the railroad for bypassing Armenia.
Tbilisi has now unequivocally embraced the railroad, however, and for good reasons. When construction is complete, Georgia—and Marabda—will be that much less out of the way.