Only settlement of Karabakh problem and further opening of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan will allow to completely resolve the problem of land transport routes to Russia, the head of the parliamentary faction of the Armenian National Congress, Levon Zurabyan, stated today in an interview to Vestnik Kavkaza commenting the problem that the Georgian Military Road regularly closes and the ways out of this infrastructural dead end.
The only way to completely stabilize Russian-Armenian transport routes is to resolve the Karabakh problem, he stressed. "If we want to completely resolve the problem, then of course it is necessary to normalize relations with our neighbors. There is another option - the opening of the Abkhaz railway, but it requires serious diplomatic efforts," he pointed out.
"The only thing that can be considered under conditions of the blockade, since the conflict is not resolved and there are no new transport schemes - is any major investments in the creation of a railway from Iran through Armenia to Georgia or something like that. If the conflicts won't be resolved, it is pretty hard to think of any additional transport schemes that can completely resolve the problem of the blockade of Armenia," he admitted.
The problem of the Georgian Military Road as the only and unreliable transport artery, which connects Armenia and Russia, emerged shortly after the closure of Azerbaijan's borders. "In 1992, when the Abkhaz railway closed, it greatly damaged the economic cooperation between Russia and Armenia and the Armenian economy as a whole. Azerbaijani road has been closed for a long time, and basically, its opening is associated only with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. Abkhaz road provided at least some possibility to enter the foreign markets for Armenia," he recalled/
"Starting from 1992, it became obvious that Armenia is in very difficult blockade conditions. Transport blockade greatly affects Armenia and regular the fact that the Georgian Military Road regularly closes due to weather conditions only makes the situation worse," he concluded.
