Armenia’s Mediterranean ambitions

Armenia can transport Georgian goods to the Mediterranean, says Gagik Agajanian, Director of the Armenian forwarding company Apaven, who thinks that after the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border forwarders will be able to transport their goods right up to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Mersin and Georgia would be able to use this route instead of the existing ones.

Agajanian has critisised Georgia for charging Armenia high transit fees. He has said that Azerbaijan pays only half and Kazakhstan a quarter of Armenia’s fees. Opening the Armenian-Turkish border will end Georgia’s monopoly on transporting Armenian goods.

Agajanian says that after the opening of the border railway transportation in Georgia will decrease by 30% and car transport by 50%. However it should be mentioned that car transit brings almost no profit to Georgia as there are no car transportation duties in Georgia at all. This is strange, because people pay for road transport in other countries.

Agajanian thinks that opening the Turkish-Armenian borders will radically change the picture of the whole transit system of the Caucasus region.