Wakizaka evaluated Armenia’s outlook on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway

Keisuke Wakizaka, an academician at Istanbul Gelisim University and Turkish lovesick, attended the International Symposium on Turkology Studies organized in Van Yüzüncü Yıl University with his notice named “Possible Effects of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway on Armenia and Javakheti Armenians”. In addition to the information about Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railways, Wakizaka stated how Armenia's view of this railway changed after 2018 and the possible effects of the railway on the Armenians in the Javakheti Region.

Stating that Armenia considered this railway as a threat during Robert Kocharian-Serzh Sargsyan period, Wakizaka said: “However, Nikol Pashinyan, who came into power in 2018, paid attention to the fact that this railway crossed the Javakheti region and started to take part in the development of Javakheti by taking part in the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway project in order to get rid of the economic difficulties and to plan to benefit from the trade on this railway. The reason why Armenia-Turkey border opening is in a bad fix is that the Western Countries focus on Georgia. Thus, Armenia increased its influence over the Javakheti region and started to benefitting from the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Project. As a result, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway became a political field.”

Wakizaka continued his speech as follows:

“For the Javakheti Armenians, in the past Javakheti was in a difficult economic situation and the Armenians there were excluded from the political-economic life of Georgia. In this respect, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway will create more opportunities for the Javakheti’s economic development, and not only Georgia will increase its control on Javakheti but Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well. Thus Javakheti will be integrated into the economic zone of Turkey-Georgia-Azerbaijan and together with getting easy to go to Tbilisi for the Javakheti Armenians, it is expected to contribute to their integration on Georgia's political and economic life. As a result, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway project has been paid attention recently to Armenia in terms of its own interests apart from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and this railway political will accelerate its integration on Georgia's political, economic and social life as well as the contribution of Georgia’s economic development.”