Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is a historic event, according to the letter of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, read out during the official opening ceremony of the railway in Baku Oct. 30.
The railway, which is a joint project of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, reflects not only the level of relations between the three countries, but is also an important part of the historical Silk Road, the letter noted.
The BTK railway project brings together the cultures of the Eurasian continent, said the letter.
“I am grateful to everyone who took part in the implementation of the project, as well as to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Yildirim noted in his letter.
The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railway’s peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.