Iron silk road may become giant highway between East and West

Leaders of Turkey, (c) Azerbaijan (r) and Georgia attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railroad in Kars last month. Regional cooperation between the South Caucasus and Turkey has moved into a new phase as the deal over Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway finally concludes. Nicknamed "the iron silk road," the railroad will connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey while bypassing Russia and Armenia. This project has formulated and clarified power relations among these countries. Although it took longer than expected for Georgia to join due to pressure from the Armenian lobby on American foreign policy to halt the project, the railway is scheduled to be completed by 2010 at an estimated price of $500 million. The occupation of northern and southern routes by so called "problematic" countries Iran and Russia... [read full story]