Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said a long-shuttered railway route linking the South Caucasus to Turkey has opened for exports and imports, as part of the gradual normalisation of relations between the two neighbours.
Pashinyan announced on May 24 that the Akhalkalaki-Kars railway connection through Georgia and Turkey was now available for Armenian trade, potentially reshaping regional trade routes between Europe and Asia.
“I am pleased to announce that the Akhalkalaki-Kars railway, like the Azerbaijani railway, is now open for exports from Armenia and imports to Armenia. This is a major event in the economic life of our country. I thank my partners from Turkey and Georgia,” Pashinyan wrote on X.
The announcement is one of the clearest signs yet that decades of economic isolation between Armenia and Turkey may be easing after years of diplomatic contacts and infrastructure negotiations.
According to Pashinyan, Armenia can now connect by rail not only to Russia through Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also potentially to European markets via Turkey.
“Railway links are now also possible with the European Union through Georgia and Turkey,” he said.
He added that further openings were expected soon, including routes through Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave and eventually onward to Iran.
“The opening of rail links between Armenia and Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and then through Nakhchivan, Armenia and Iran is expected in the near future,” Pashinyan said. “We will witness these events in the near future as a result of the implementation of the TRIPP project.”
The Armenian government also plans to restore the Gyumri-Akhurik-Akyaka railway section toward Turkey’s Kars province and repair the Yeraskh rail junction near the Azerbaijani border.
“We also intend to begin restoration of the Gyumri-Akhurik-Akyaka railway section in the near future. Work has already begun on the Turkish side, and the railway will be reopened,” Pashinyan said.
He added that the reopening of regional railways would transform Armenia’s strategic position.
“That is, we will have rail service from the Persian Gulf all the way to the Black Sea — to the ports of Batumi, Poti, and Anaklia. This will significantly change the economic situation in Armenia,” he said.
Turkey-Armenia thaw
Armenia and Turkey have never established formal diplomatic relations since Armenia gained independence in 1991. Ankara closed the border in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, and ties remained frozen for decades.
Relations were burdened not only by the Karabakh conflict but also by Armenia’s campaign for international recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide, a term Ankara rejects.
The relationship began to shift gradually after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and accelerated following Azerbaijan’s recapture of the enclave in 2023, which fundamentally altered regional geopolitics.
In late 2021, Armenia and Turkey appointed special envoys to pursue normalisation talks. Since then, the two sides have reopened direct air cargo links, increased diplomatic contacts and discussed reopening land borders.
In September 2024, Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met in New York and reaffirmed their commitment to normalising relations without preconditions.
Meetings between Armenian and Turkish officials intensified through 2025 and 2026, including discussions on reopening border crossings to third-country nationals, restoring rail infrastructure and expanding flight connections.
Earlier this month, Pashinyan announced the signing of a protocol with Turkey on the reconstruction of the historic Ani Bridge, symbolically linking the two countries across a frontier closed for more than three decades.
For Armenia, normalisation with Turkey could help reduce economic dependence on Russia and Georgia, its main traditional transit routes. For Turkey, the reopening of regional links could strengthen its role as a logistics hub connecting Europe with the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
Middle Corridor ambitions
The railway reopening also feeds into broader geopolitical ambitions surrounding the so-called Middle Corridor, or Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, a trade network linking China and Central Asia to Europe while bypassing Russia.
The corridor stretches roughly 4,000 kilometres across Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and Turkey before reaching Europe. Interest in the route has surged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted traditional northern trade routes through Russian territory and prompted Western countries and companies to seek alternatives.
However, the Middle Corridor still handles only a fraction of the cargo volumes carried by the Russian route and faces major infrastructure bottlenecks, particularly in the South Caucasus.
At present, most east-west cargo travelling through the region must pass through Georgia because there has been no fully operational railway route linking Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), backed by the United States, aims to change that by creating a multimodal transport corridor through Armenia connecting mainland Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan and onward to Turkey.
Following talks in Washington in January, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a framework for the project, which would integrate Armenia into the wider Trans-Caspian trade route. Pashinyan said the corridor would eventually connect Armenia with both Iran and Turkey through restored rail infrastructure.
“When the TRIPP project is implemented, we will have a railway through Meghri that will connect to Nakhichevan, from Nakhichevan to Yeraskh, from Yeraskh to Gyumri, from Gyumri to Akhurik, and from Akhurik to Turkey,” he said.
The Armenian government plans to create a TRIPP Development Company to manage the project under a long-term concession arrangement involving U.S. participation.
Supporters say the project could transform Armenia from a landlocked regional outpost into a transit hub linking Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.
Pashinyan embraced that vision directly. “In recent years, Armenia has transformed from the outskirts of the world into the centre of the world,” he said.
Yet major geopolitical risks remain. The proposed corridor would pass close to Iran’s border, raising concerns about regional instability and the potential vulnerability of infrastructure projects tied to Western-backed initiatives.
https://www.intellinews.com/armenia-says-turkey-rail-link-open-for-trade-in-breakthrough-for-regional-connectivity-444628/?source=armenia
—