Kars–Gyumri: Turkey presses on with railway works up to the Armenian border
- Published
- Place
- Akyaka (Kars), Türkiye
- Event date
- Past event —
Summary
Restoration work on the Kars–Gyumri railway is continuing on the Turkish side, right up to the Armenian border. The district governor (kaymakam) of Akyaka, İsmail Demirtaş, and the chairman of the Kars provincial council, Fuat Arslan, inspected the site, according to Turkey’s IHA news agency, which reported it on Friday, 13 November. They were briefed by the company carrying out the works. The line and the Akyaka border crossing, closed for decades, could transform this rural district. The visit came a day after Nikol Pashinyan said in Antalya: “Now we need to repair and open the railway between our countries, and we are working on that.” The border has been closed since 1993.
An inspection on the border line
According to IHA, İsmail Demirtaş visited the section under construction at the border together with Fuat Arslan. On site, a company official briefed him on the state of the works, the ongoing tasks and the project’s progress. The report was picked up in Armenia by the Aysor website, citing the Turkish outlet Ermenihaber.
The Turkish agency stresses local expectations. The Akyaka border crossing, known as Doğu Kapı (the “Eastern Gate”), and the railway have been closed for years. Residents are following their reopening “closely”, hoping for a boost to the district’s trade, economy and transport.
Twenty kilometres between Akyaka and Gyumri
The geography is simple. Trains already run from Kars to Akyaka: about 57 kilometres, roughly fifty minutes. From Akyaka to Gyumri, only 18 to 20 kilometres of track remain. That is a half-hour journey, if the border opened.
In the summer, the mayor of Akyaka said repairs on the Turkish section would take two to three months. On 10 November, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said preparations were complete for both the railway and the Alican road crossing, opposite Margara.
On the Armenian side, everything is still to be built
In Armenia, the 21-kilometre section between Gyumri and the border has been disused since the early 1990s. In August, Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Minister Davit Khudatyan launched an international tender for the design work. Construction is estimated at around $15 million, with a separate tender for the works themselves.
Armenia’s network has been run since 2008 by a subsidiary of Russian Railways (RZhD) under a 30-year concession. Yerevan has said it will finance the rehabilitation of this section itself. The two countries also held a working group meeting on the line in Kars on 28 April.
Analysis
On the Turkish side, the works are moving and local officials want it known. On the Armenian side, the project is still at the design stage. That gap says it all: the tracks may be ready before the politics. Ankara still ties the border opening to a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Positive words from Pashinyan and Erdoğan in Antalya, then the Pashinyan–Aliyev meeting in Dublin, feed hopes. But no opening date has been announced. For Gyumri as for Akyaka, the train remains a promise.
Possible consequences
No opening date has been announced for the border or the line. On the Armenian side, the construction tender for the 21-km section is due to follow the design phase.
