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ISTANBUL: Turkey could reopen railway in parallel with Karabakh prog

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  • ISTANBUL: Turkey could reopen railway in parallel with Karabakh prog

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    Nov 8 2013


    Turkey could reopen railway in parallel with Karabakh progress

    ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
    Sevil ErkuĊ?


    Turkey could be amenable to reopening the long-closed railway link
    between Kars and Armenia if Yerevan and Baku make progress in solving
    the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, diplomatic sources have said.

    Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev will visit Turkey on Nov. 12,
    during which `creative ideas' to create peace and stability in the
    region will be high on the agenda, according to diplomatic sources.
    One of those `creative ideas' is to reopen the Turkey-Armenia railway,
    contingent upon parallel progress in solving the dispute over
    Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been occupied by Armenia for two decades,
    diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

    The Kars-Gyumri section of the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line has
    not been operational since 1993, when Turkey closed the border with
    Armenia amid its war with Azerbaijan for Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The idea of reopening the railway came as a question to Foreign
    Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu at a closed-door Parliament briefing on Nov.
    6. The minister said opening the border with Armenia and reopening the
    railway could be brought to the agenda under the framework of a peace
    plan that includes the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    The minister earlier said Turkey was looking for `creative ideas' to
    develop relations with Armenia, adding that Ankara was intent on
    normalizing ties. `Now we are looking to develop it and advance with
    creative ideas and new ways of thinking. We will increase our works in
    the coming period. When relations between Turkey and Armenia are
    normalized, most of the issues between Azerbaijan and Armenia will
    also be within the framework of a solution,' DavutoÄ?lu said last month
    at a press conference in Switzerland, which had hosted a signing
    ceremony in 2009 for a protocol between Turkey and Armenia to
    normalize ties.

    Turkey would consider all steps taken in parallel to other steps in
    the region in a positive way, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Levent
    Gümrükçü said at a press briefing yesterday. In this regard, Turkey is
    in cooperation and in coordination with Azerbaijan, he added.

    Turkey introduced the Integrated Transportation Corridors Project to
    the Minsk Group in November 2012, to be implemented in peace time and
    particularly after Armenia moves to end its occupation of seven
    regions bordering Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The first part of a plan to renew transport linkages among regional
    countries will focus on linking Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia
    by fixing unused railways and building new ones.

    Transportation from Turkey to Armenia would be supported by railway
    and a new highway in order to increase trade and human traffic between
    the two countries.

    November/08/2013




    From: A. Papazian
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