Ahmet Arslan, 65th Government Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, Kars deputy, OSCE-PA member, attended the Baku Parliamentary Platform Seminar held via video conference. Arslan said, “The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway constitutes the backbone of the Trans-Caspian East-West Central Corridor, which travels the Caucasus region, the Caspian Sea, the Central Asian Countries and reaches as far as China.”
Arslan's speech at the seminar is as follows: “First of all, I would like to express my thanks to the Azerbaijani Parliament who organized the seminar. As the participants expressed in their speeches, the epidemic danger we face affects all aspects of life, especially health, economy, social, environment and security. The measures and restrictions that the authorities had to take to prevent the spread of the epidemic had negative effects on the global economy.
In this context, it is among our expectations that the global and regional organizations that we have have found a solution to the economic dimension of the crisis. We believe that the Baku Parliamentary Platform (BPP) provides an important platform due to its functions such as raising awareness and broadening political support.
In addition to global and regional efforts, countries need to contribute to this process individually. In this regard, I would like to emphasize economic cooperation, connectivity and transfer, which are among the important agenda items of BPP, and to touch upon the developments in our country within this framework.
As is known, Turkey, located at the intersection of Europe and Asia and North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, which has an important geographical location and access to Russia.
Turkey of this natural position, raising the existing infrastructure for the benefit of all the countries mentioned and removing obstacles in the continental transport and trade, win-win a Modern based on the strategy of the Silk Road supports the reconstruction and encourage multi-modal transport corridors.
Our efforts for this purpose were realized through our Trans Caspian East-West “Middle Corridor” initiative, which travels the Caucasus region, the Caspian Sea, Central Asian countries and reaches China.
In this context, we pay special attention to the development of the Middle Hall as an important component of the Modern Silk Road. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway, which I joined as a Minister on the test drive on September 27, 2017 and opened on October 30, 2017, is the backbone of the Middle Corridor. BTK Railway has been an important step in the revival of the Modern Silk Road and has played an active role in ensuring a seamless connection between the East and the West.
Due to the closing of the border gates in the pandemic process, BTK Railway has undertaken an important task by carrying 138.000 tons of transportation.
In the context of the development of the Middle Corridor, in addition to the BTK Railway, in addition to the Caravanserai Project for inter-customs cooperation, Marmaray connecting Asia and Europe, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, Eurasia Tube Crossing Project and Istanbul Airport are among the completed projects, the 3-Storey Tube Passage Project. The works for the construction of the Ports of Filyos (Zonguldak), Çandarlı (İzmir) and Mersin and the "Edirne - Kars High Speed Train and Connections Railway Project", which will also connect Asia and Europe, are still continuing.
Yet the unique position of Turkey, the Middle East and including the Caspian Basin, the world's proven gas and take place in a region where the oil reserves, foreseeing delivered directly to Western markets of these resources and the other components of the Silk Road has played an important role in the realization of the East-West Energy Corridor .
In this context, it will allow it to reach Europe through our country and our country and to reinforce the diversity of resources and routes in the field of natural gas;
Southern Gas Corridor (YEC) within the scope of the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (SCP) in the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) Natural Gas Pipeline, the Turkey-Greece Natural Gas Interconnector (ITGI) and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) already was put into operation. In addition, you are well aware of many oil pipelines, especially the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil pipeline.
Consequently, Turkey connectivity issues in support of both road and rail transport for the Central Corridor development, provision of superstructure and infrastructure services, before the outbreak of the energy corridors to ensure the energy supply and security, with the opening points and has made great progress, including after.
I wish the BPP platform to achieve successful results in the areas of regional security, humanitarian issues, economic cooperation, protection of international law and multilateralism, and hope that humanitarian life will end soon and humanity will have a more prosperous future. ”
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