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Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
If the July 15 military coup had been successful, the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway in Turkey would have stopped, Turkish Minister of Transport, Shipping and Communications Ahmet Arslan said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.
He said in such a case, other important projects in Turkey would also have been under a great threat.
“As it has turned out, one of the objectives of the coup plotters was to paralyze the transport projects in Turkey,” Arslan added.
On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. It will be commissioned in the second half of this year.
The peak capacity of the BTK will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At the initial stage, the capacity will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
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