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EurasiaNet, NY
Oct 13 2007
NEW TRANS-CAUCASUS RAILWAY PROJECT GETS THE GO-AHEAD
Nicholas Birch 10/12/07
Barely a decade ago, the city of Kars had to fight hard to ensure it
was connected to a new improved railway line stretching east across
Turkey from Ankara. Now it is set to be a transit hub connecting
southern Europe to China, via the Caspian.
Given the go-ahead early this year by the governments of Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey, after 15 years of hesitations, the $600 million
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line is expected to be completed by 2009.
In late September, 14 Turkish companies including construction giants
Nurol and Tekfen presented bids for the 70 kilometer section of track
due to connect Kars to the Georgian border. Turkey has ear-marked
$300 million for the work. Gas-rich Azerbaijan has already given
Georgia $40 million of a $200 million loan - to be paid back over 25
years at 1 percent interest - to finance its part of the project.
Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoglu sees the railway as a crucial lifeline for
the city, one of Turkey's five poorest. "Not so long ago, people
joked about selling Kars off for a handful of lira", he says. "Now we
can look to the future with hope."
He also thinks the BTK line confirms Kars' position as a natural
bridge between two geographical zones. "Kars is as much Caucasian as
it is Anatolian", he says, referring to the city's distinctly
un-Turkish cobble-stone boulevards and elegant black stone houses.
Kars was in Russian hands between 1878 and 1918, and many of its
inhabitants are the grandchildren of Azeris who fled inter-ethnic
fighting and Bolsheviks at the end of the First World War.
A media-savvy man, Alibeyoglu is convinced it's his lobbying that has
brought the railway project to fruition. In reality, the BTK is just
another sign of what Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the
Moscow-based Institute for National Strategy, calls "the myth of the
unerring dependence of Eurasian states on Russian hydrocarbons."
If the railway has taken so long to get off the drawing board, it is
largely because of Georgian hesitation. In part, Tbilisi's problem
was simply lack of money. But it also feared a trans-Caucasian
railway would undermine the importance of its two major Black Sea
ports - Batumi and Poti.
It changed its mind after Moscow cut transport and postal links with
Georgia following Tbilisi's arrest of four Russian soldiers in
September 2006 on spying charges. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive].
Not everybody is happy about the new route. Armenia, which has had
antagonistic relations with Turkey for most of the last century,
stands to be shut out from the benefits of the BTK railway.
The green light for railway construction riles Yerevan for the simple
reason that it already has a railway line connecting Turkey to the
Caspian. Considerably shorter than projected Baku-Kars route, the
Armenian line - which crosses the Turkish border 40 kilometers east
of Kars - could be brought back to life for a fraction of the cost of
the new project. The chief obstacle to cooperation is a Turkish
embargo against Armenia - imposed in 1993 after Armenian forces drove
the Azerbaijani military out of the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, and went on the occupy a substantial portion of
Azerbaijani territory. Efforts to negotiate a Karabakh peace
settlement remain deadlocked. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive].
The lack of Turkish-Armenian cooperation helps explain European and
American unwillingness to help finance the BTK. It remains to be seen
whether the World Bank will respond any differently to an Azeri
request for funding made this September 11.
In Akyaka, a Turkish town that sits astride the old trans-Caucasus
line just 10 kilometers from the Armenian border, locals seem
resigned to their fall into dusty oblivion.
"We used to get a lot of freight through here", railway worker Fuat
Erdogdu remembers. "Now we're the end of the line - just one train a
day from Kars."
With the BTK project in the works, Akyaka mayor Bulent Ozturk
acknowledges, the likelihood of the local track being reopened to
international trade is slim. "We'll survive. It's Armenia I feel
sorry for: Armenians are poorer than us."
Like almost all locals, he goes on to insist that there is no
question of Turkey ending its Armenian blockade unless the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue is resolved.
Back in Kars, Naif Alibeyoglu is more candid. Armenian president
Robert Kocharian has painted his people into a corner with his
hawkishness, he says, but Turkey is to blame too.
"Trade is the best way to improve relations. But Turkey's governments
have always preferred to play the populist card - talking about
standing up for our Azeri brothers. The result? Stalemate."
Editor's Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the
Middle East.
Oct 13 2007
NEW TRANS-CAUCASUS RAILWAY PROJECT GETS THE GO-AHEAD
Nicholas Birch 10/12/07
Barely a decade ago, the city of Kars had to fight hard to ensure it
was connected to a new improved railway line stretching east across
Turkey from Ankara. Now it is set to be a transit hub connecting
southern Europe to China, via the Caspian.
Given the go-ahead early this year by the governments of Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey, after 15 years of hesitations, the $600 million
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line is expected to be completed by 2009.
In late September, 14 Turkish companies including construction giants
Nurol and Tekfen presented bids for the 70 kilometer section of track
due to connect Kars to the Georgian border. Turkey has ear-marked
$300 million for the work. Gas-rich Azerbaijan has already given
Georgia $40 million of a $200 million loan - to be paid back over 25
years at 1 percent interest - to finance its part of the project.
Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoglu sees the railway as a crucial lifeline for
the city, one of Turkey's five poorest. "Not so long ago, people
joked about selling Kars off for a handful of lira", he says. "Now we
can look to the future with hope."
He also thinks the BTK line confirms Kars' position as a natural
bridge between two geographical zones. "Kars is as much Caucasian as
it is Anatolian", he says, referring to the city's distinctly
un-Turkish cobble-stone boulevards and elegant black stone houses.
Kars was in Russian hands between 1878 and 1918, and many of its
inhabitants are the grandchildren of Azeris who fled inter-ethnic
fighting and Bolsheviks at the end of the First World War.
A media-savvy man, Alibeyoglu is convinced it's his lobbying that has
brought the railway project to fruition. In reality, the BTK is just
another sign of what Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the
Moscow-based Institute for National Strategy, calls "the myth of the
unerring dependence of Eurasian states on Russian hydrocarbons."
If the railway has taken so long to get off the drawing board, it is
largely because of Georgian hesitation. In part, Tbilisi's problem
was simply lack of money. But it also feared a trans-Caucasian
railway would undermine the importance of its two major Black Sea
ports - Batumi and Poti.
It changed its mind after Moscow cut transport and postal links with
Georgia following Tbilisi's arrest of four Russian soldiers in
September 2006 on spying charges. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive].
Not everybody is happy about the new route. Armenia, which has had
antagonistic relations with Turkey for most of the last century,
stands to be shut out from the benefits of the BTK railway.
The green light for railway construction riles Yerevan for the simple
reason that it already has a railway line connecting Turkey to the
Caspian. Considerably shorter than projected Baku-Kars route, the
Armenian line - which crosses the Turkish border 40 kilometers east
of Kars - could be brought back to life for a fraction of the cost of
the new project. The chief obstacle to cooperation is a Turkish
embargo against Armenia - imposed in 1993 after Armenian forces drove
the Azerbaijani military out of the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, and went on the occupy a substantial portion of
Azerbaijani territory. Efforts to negotiate a Karabakh peace
settlement remain deadlocked. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive].
The lack of Turkish-Armenian cooperation helps explain European and
American unwillingness to help finance the BTK. It remains to be seen
whether the World Bank will respond any differently to an Azeri
request for funding made this September 11.
In Akyaka, a Turkish town that sits astride the old trans-Caucasus
line just 10 kilometers from the Armenian border, locals seem
resigned to their fall into dusty oblivion.
"We used to get a lot of freight through here", railway worker Fuat
Erdogdu remembers. "Now we're the end of the line - just one train a
day from Kars."
With the BTK project in the works, Akyaka mayor Bulent Ozturk
acknowledges, the likelihood of the local track being reopened to
international trade is slim. "We'll survive. It's Armenia I feel
sorry for: Armenians are poorer than us."
Like almost all locals, he goes on to insist that there is no
question of Turkey ending its Armenian blockade unless the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue is resolved.
Back in Kars, Naif Alibeyoglu is more candid. Armenian president
Robert Kocharian has painted his people into a corner with his
hawkishness, he says, but Turkey is to blame too.
"Trade is the best way to improve relations. But Turkey's governments
have always preferred to play the populist card - talking about
standing up for our Azeri brothers. The result? Stalemate."
Editor's Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the
Middle East.