Former Prime Minister: The railway through Meghri is needed not only  by Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also by China, India and even the  United States

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.