by John Daly (vol. 6 no. 15 of the Turkey Analyst)
Turkey is actively seeking to restore the Silk Road, and the country’s massive investment in railway expansion is an expression of this ambition. Turkey’s massive railway projects are certainly going to bolster its ambitions to be a major transport corridor, which in turn will have geo-strategic consequences. When the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail line becomes operational by 2014, it will offer for the first time the Caucasian and Central Asian post-Soviet states an east-west transit corridor not under Russian control, breaking Moscow’s domination which began in the late 19th century when rail lines first began to be built there.
The Turkey Analyst is a publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Joint Center, designed to bring authoritative analysis and news on the rapidly developing domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey. It includes topical analysis, as well as a summary of the Turkish media debate.
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