A foundation laying ceremony was held in the Turkish province of Kars on 22 August for the Kars-Igdir-Aralik-Diluju railway line, which will connect Turkey with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.
The new route is to become part of the “Zangezur corridor” – as Baku and Ankara call the transport project designed to link the main part of Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia. The project was activated in early August in Washington under the name “Trump’s Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP).
The railway in Turkey will be approximately 224 kilometres long. The line will have a capacity of up to 5.5 million passengers and 15 million tonnes of freight per year. The construction cost is estimated at around €2.4 billion. The project is expected to be completed within four to five years, tentatively by the end of 2029.
Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloglu, speaking at the ceremony, emphasised that this is not only a transport link, but also a strategic step that will strengthen Turkey’s geopolitical role as a key logistics hub between Asia and Europe. He said the new line will boost the development of the country’s eastern regions, facilitate the export of agricultural and industrial products, and create new opportunities for tourism.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a written address on the occasion of the railway line’s groundbreaking ceremony. He said the expansion of the railway network between Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey will affect regional trade.
Azerbaijan is currently linked to Turkey by the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, but its capacity remains minimal.