Türkiye to kick off vital railway project for Zangezur Corridor

ANKARA

Türkiye will lay the foundation on Aug. 22 for a major railway project in the country’s east that will form a strategic segment of the Zangezur Corridor, a planned key route in the South Caucasus.

The Kars-Iğdır-Aralık-Dilucu Railway Line, stretching 224 kilometers, will serve as a critical link within the Zangezur Corridor that connects Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced.

Designed to carry 5.5 million passengers and 15 million tons of freight annually, the line will also include five tunnels, the minister noted.

External financing worth 2.4 billion euros ($2.79 billion) was secured through efforts led by the Treasury and Finance Ministry.

Highlighting the project’s economic and geostrategic significance, Uraloğlu said the railway would not only strengthen passenger and freight transport in eastern Türkiye but also enhance the country’s logistical capacity and reinforce its role as a safe hub along trade corridors stretching into Asia.

“With this line, another uninterrupted railway connection will be established between Türkiye and Azerbaijan,” he stressed.

The minister added that the project would enable eastern and southeastern Anatolia’s production potential to reach international markets faster while boosting tourism opportunities in the Mediterranean.

The line will also reinforce both the Trans-Caspian and North-South transport corridors, integrating Türkiye more deeply into Eurasia’s supply and logistics networks and positioning the country as a central hub of regional cooperation.

Once operational, the Zangezur Corridor is expected to enhance economic integration across the South Caucasus and make the East-West axis — from Beijing to London — more efficient, significantly increasing the freight-handling capacity of the Middle Corridor by both rail and road.

The Zangezur Corridor, which traverses Armenia and links mainland Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan on Türkiye’s border, was enshrined in an agreement reached at a trilateral summit hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Aug. 8.

At the summit, Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint declaration intended to end decades of hostilities.

As part of the deal, the United States secured development rights over the proposed route, branded the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” which also runs close to the Iranian border — a move that Tehran has openly rejected.

In a meeting earlier this week, Pashinyan reassured Iran's president that the planned corridor will be under Armenian control.

"Roads passing through Armenia will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of Armenia, and security will be provided by Armenia, not by any third country," Pashinyan said at a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

He added that the corridor would open new economic perspectives between the two countries and may offer a railway path from Iran to the Black Sea coast through Armenia.