Over time, more details are emerging about the Armenia-Azerbaijan summit in Washington on August 8, particularly regarding the implementation of infrastructure projects. It has become known that Turkey will be directly involved in the construction of the “Zangezur Corridor” through a consortium of its companies. Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu confirmed this on CNN Türk. In other words, as the situation unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that the Washington summit represented yet another stage of unilateral concessions by Armenia, and in this context, it is not surprising that the Armenian authorities have not made public the contents of the Memorandum of Partnership signed with the United States for the development of the “Crossroads of Peace” project.
Turkey Takes on Construction: Minister’s Statement
“The work on the Zangezur Corridor will be fully completed within 4–5 years,” stated Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu. According to him, thanks to the signing of documents for external financing, there are no financial obstacles: “The company is not waiting for funding; this is a project worth $2.4 billion. It will be built by a consortium of two major Turkish companies. This is a line 43 kilometers long. In four, at most five years, we will fully commission this corridor.” Uraloglu clarified that within Turkish territory, the line stretches 224 kilometers.
“At the border with Nakhijevan, there will be a 170-kilometer line, of which 150 kilometers are already completed and will be restored, and another 20 kilometers will be constructed. This will be handled by Azerbaijan. The work will be completed simultaneously with us. A person boarding a train in Kars will be able to reach Baku. Our goal is to complete the work synchronously. The Zangezur line, 43 kilometers long (the segment passing through the Syunik region of Armenia), will begin last. The corridor will be fully operational in five years. Since there is already the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars line, the new corridor will provide the Turkic world with a shorter and uninterrupted route. The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars line has certain capacities, and when it reaches its limit, new corridors will become necessary.”
The minister added that detailed discussions on the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” are ongoing, although the specifics have not yet been clarified.