Epress.am News from Armenia
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, after an announcement on easing the customs process with neighboring countries, spoke about the recently completed Turkey-Georgia joint inspection and customs control in Sarpi. According to Saakashvili, the decision to build the checkpoint was made as a result of talks with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Turkey’s and Georgia’s borders, by being open, allows for the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor to become an influential segment of the Great Silk Road project,” reports Russian news source Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
“Because of the political motives of this union, in Armenia they’re calling it ‘anti-Armenian.’ Yerevan’s concern is also conditioned by the fact that, even with the help of the West, it was unable to make amendments to the Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Kars project. Because of the Karabakh issue, the opening of the unused section of the formed Gyumri-Kars railway will sufficiently reduce the road construction cost. The Kars-Akhalkalaki sections wouldn’t have been necessary. Despite the fact that, upon Yerevan’s suggestion, there were supporters also in Turkey, Azerbaijan was able to move its agenda forward: all projects will be carried out without Armenia, since the issue of Mountainous Karabakh still exists,” wrote the Nezavisimaya Gazeta analyst.
Georgia isn’t preparing to be satisfied with what it has. Georgian Finance Minister Kakha Baindurashvili and Armenian Ambassador Hratch Silvanyan on Wednesday in Tbilisi discussed numerous border control issues.
It’s become known that, as part of the Integrated Border Management program, the Council of Europe will grant Yerevan $2 million USD for border control of the Armenia-Georgia segment.