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Sarkisyan says Baku–Akhalkalaki–Kars not directed against Armenia

By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Friday, March 14
President-elect of Armenia Serzh Sarkisyan says he does not think the Baku–Akhalkalaki–Kars railway project is directed against Armenian interests.

“There is a railway and if we need to use it we will. So we shouldn’t create a fuss, and [should] refrain from saying that this is directed against Armenia,” Sarkisyan said in a March 12 meeting with Armenian students.

The US and the EU have criticized the project for isolating Armenia, and Washington passed a resolution banning American construction firms from taking part in the building of the railway under pressure from the Armenian lobby.

President Mikheil Saakashvili hailed the project as a “geopolitical revolution” at a ceremony marking the inauguration of construction on the Georgian section of the railway last year.