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Armenian paper says regional railway proj to fail without US funding

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  • Armenian paper says regional railway proj to fail without US funding

    Armenian paper says regional railway project to fail without US funding

    Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
    28 Jul 06

    Text of report by Vardan Grigoryan in Armenian newspaper Hayots
    Ashkarh on 28 July headlined "The USA is freezing Kars-Akhalkalak"

    A decision by the US Congress not to finance the construction of the
    Kars-Akhalkalak [Akhalkalaki]-Tbilisi[-Baku] railway at the expense of
    US tax-payers reflects new geopolitical goals and priorities of the
    USA in the South Caucasus region. In the pivot of these goals and
    priorities there is a task to direct the South Caucasus economically
    and politically towards the West via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline and
    other energy projects, and at the same time to form new regional
    counter balances. It is not at all accidental that the decision of the
    US Congress on 26 July was adopted in condition of the complex
    situation in the US-Turkish relations.

    After Israel's invasion of Lebanon, when in its turn Turkey demanded
    that the USA gave carte blanche for an invasion to northern Iraq, the
    Americans made clear to Turkey that the invasion of Iraq meant
    Turkey's good-bye to prospects of joining the European Union. The
    abovementioned decision of the US Congress is another important
    warning to Turkey which is forming energy and transport corridors
    simultaneously in several directions.

    The stronger the US positions are in the Middle East and the South
    Caucasus, the clearer is the fact that the USA may consider Israel its
    only "governor" [in the region] which has no an alternative. Turkey,
    in turn, because of its convenient geographic position has not only
    alternatives but is looking for them everywhere: in Russia, in the
    Muslim world, in the Caucasus-Middle East region which is rich with
    energy resources.

    Thus, strict political will expressed by the US Congress on 26 July is
    evidence of the fact that this is not a victory of the Armenian lobby
    over Turkey and Azerbaijan as many people think today. It would be
    also naive to think that all this is simply a victory of justice about
    which representatives of the Armenian Assembly of America declare.

    Does it mean that the problem of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway
    construction which contradicts US interests may be considered closed?
    Given recent statements of Azerbaijani and Turkish officials, they are
    ready to finance the project without US funding. But there is also
    Georgia for which it would be very difficult to oppose strict
    political will of the US Congress expressed on 26 July.

    This resolution by the House of Representatives may lead to a delay in
    the Georgian-Turkish-Azerbaijani talks on the construction of the
    Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway and to deepening of disagreements
    between the parties. As for the construction itself, it will remain
    unsettled and will be forgotten later. Or on the contrary, it will be
    revived depending on changes in US policy in the South Caucasus.
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