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.
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.
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 month that reconstruction work on the Turkish side has already begun and will be completed within two or three months.
Ankara continues to make the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border contingent on the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
