Armenian Government to Rebuild Rail Link with Turkey

YEREVAN — The Armenian government has taken the first step towards rebuilding a section of Armenia’s Russian-run railway network leading to its closed border with Turkey, Infrastructure Minister Davit Khudatian said on Monday.

Khudatian revealed that the government has called an international tender for designing the 21-kilometer section that runs from Gyumri to the border. It has been disused and has fallen into disrepair since the early 1990s.

Russia’s state-owned railway monopoly Russian Railways (RZhD) runs the network under a 30-year management contract signed with Yerevan in 2008. Citing progress made towards the restoration of Armenia’s transport links with Turkey and Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian repeatedly urged RZhD late last year to repair this and another railway section leading to Azerbaijan.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk indicated its readiness to do that on February 12. Pashinian declared the next day that he wants to end the Russian management of the Armenian railways. He claimed that it discourages Turkey and Azerbaijan from using a much larger section of Armenian territory for transit purposes in the near future. Moscow has since repeatedly rejected Pashinian’s demands to cede its management rights to another foreign country or company.

As tensions between the two estranged allies rose further late last month, Pashinian threatened to take legal action to strip RZhD of those rights or to charge the Russian operator as much as $2 billion annually for them. He walked backed on the threats two weeks later following stern warnings from Russian officials.

Khudatian’s statement is a further indication that Yerevan wants to exclude the Russians from the planned reconstruction of the Gyumri-Akhurik section. Pashinian said in May that it will be financed by his government.

Khudatian also told journalists that later this year the government will call a separate tender for the construction itself, which will require an estimated $15 million in funding. He gave no concrete dates for its start and competition.

The Turkish section of the Armenia-Turkey railway is also in need of reconstruction. The mayor of the Turkish border town of Akyaka told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last that month reconstruction work on the Turkish side has already begun and will be completed within two or three months.