ArmInfo. The Horadiz - Meghri - Julfa - Ordubad - Yeraskh railway is needed not only by Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also by China, India and even the USA. Chairman of the party, former Prime Minister of Armenia Aram Sargsyan, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"Let's finally understand that even the United States also has a circle of its own interests in the South Caucasus. The Americans make certain statements and steps by no means for the sake of our beautiful Armenian eyes. They pursue their own goals based on the economic interests of the United States. And on the path of these interests, there are problems, the solution of which requires the unblocking of communications, including railways," he stressed.
And against such a geopolitical and geo-economic background, in Armenia, according to Sargsyan, there are people, and even entire political parties, who claim that the re-exploitation of this Armenian railway is completely unprofitable, but only beneficial for Azerbaijan. And that's why it just shouldn't be. Meanwhile, in his opinion, Armenia can not ignore international realities, tendencies and desires, let alone oppose them.
On February 3, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that Armenia is already discussing the practical issues of building a railway from Yeraskh to Horadiz. For this purpose, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Overchuk and head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov visited Armenia on February 2. Following the meeting with them, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan stated that the parties are close to voicing the first results of the work of the trilateral group. According to Pashinyan, the terms of reference for the road, its design, financing and the start of construction are being discussed.
In the opinion of the politician, the unblocking of the Armenian-Turkish border is also important for the same Europe, which at one time was the reason for the pressure on Armenia and Turkey in Zurich. And now the presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation are already calling for this. In this light, Sargsyan considers the resistance of the Armenian leadership to the desires of Washington, Brussels and Moscow completely inappropriate. He also noted that Armenia could oppose Turkey's aspirations, but only with international support in this matter. While today the situation is exactly the opposite.
"In the absence of the support of at least one serious player in this matter, we simply cannot oppose projects to unblock regional communications. And we should also understand that with a closed economy, being in the EAEU, in the context of ongoing inflation, we will not last long. And we will have nothing to counter the already observed migration of our population. And if we want to prevent all this, then we need to start with ourselves, with our own thinking, with the thinking of a sovereign state, while taking into account the realities and ready to adapt to them. For our own interests, not for the interests of others ", summed up Sargsyan.