Baku-Nakhchivan-Kars and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars highways

Turkey expects a consensus to be reached between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Zangezur corridor and believes that the implementation of this project will benefit all countries in the region, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as reported by the TRT Haber television channel.

According to him, "the Zangezur corridor will benefit not only Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey, but also other countries in the region."

“We consider this direction to be extremely important in terms of geo-economic dimension. This line will connect geographical regions outside our region and will revitalize trade. We also hope that it will become a symbol of reconciliation, not a source of disagreement. I believe that we, as countries of the region, will be able to resolve this issue on the basis of consensus,” Erdogan said.

Earlier, the media reported that the United States, within the framework of the peace agreement, offered Baku and Yerevan to transfer the 40-kilometer Armenian section of this transport corridor under the control of a private company. Also, the US Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barak, stated that Washington “is ready to take over the section of Armenian territory that connects Azerbaijan with its enclave in Nakhchivan and borders Turkey on a 100-year lease.”

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also mentioned the EU’s interest in managing the transport route, which was discussed during his recent visit to Brussels and Paris on July 14. In particular, the issue is the inclusion of the Armenian section of the corridor in the Global Gateway program, an EU initiative for the development of infrastructure and transport. Pashinyan does not rule out the inclusion of China’s global project “One Belt, One Road” in the administration.

The Armenian section passes through the Syunik region, which is known in Azerbaijan as the Zangezur corridor.

In particular, according to the project, the Azerbaijani part of the Zangezur corridor includes a transport and railway highway from Baku to the Azerbaijani city of Goradiz, and from Goradiz to the city of Ordubad in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. The length of the Armenian section of the Zangezur corridor is approximately 43 km. Construction work on the project is underway everywhere, except for the Armenian province of Syunik.

The length of the Turkish section of the corridor itself is 224 km, and the length of the road connecting the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic with Turkey is approximately 100 km. The continuation of this road will be the Igdir-Kars railway, for which a tender was held last year and construction has begun.

In total, the entire process of creating this corridor takes four years. In particular, the Turkish side will complete all work in 2028, and expects the Zangezur corridor project to be fully completed by 2029.

The issue of the Armenian section was allegedly discussed during talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Abu Dhabi on July 10.

For reference: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is considering the Zangezur corridor project along with the possibility of investing in Georgian ports. According to his assessment, the Baku-Nakhichevan-Kars highway will join the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway and, together with Georgian seaports, will create additional opportunities for increasing freight traffic.

Also in March of this year, project manager Osman Beserek stated that the railway project between Kars, Igdir in Turkey, and Nakhichevan in Azerbaijan is already at the implementation stage, which will be integrated with the BTC railway in the future. According to him, the Nakhichevan-Igdir route will reduce the travel time to Kars to 85 minutes, and integration with the BTC will contribute to the development of trade relations between Europe and Asia and create new prospects for international cargo transportation. Ultimately, the time for passenger transportation between Central Asia and Europe will be reduced from 18 to 12 days.

After commissioning, trains will run on the railway line at speeds of up to 160 km/h.

Info: bpn.ge