Erdogan: Turkey-Azerbaijan relations exceptional

The relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are exceptional, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told media before his visit to Baku on April 4.

"The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the largest projects being implemented by the two countries in the region will be discussed during the meetings in Baku," he added.

Erdogan also said that the upcoming visit to Azerbaijan will contribute to consolidating and strengthening the Turkish- Azerbaijani relations.

"The relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are an example for the whole world and the two countries are strategic partners," Erdogan said.
"Turkey and Azerbaijan are implementing very important economic projects in the region, including the Baku- Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Baku-Tbilisi -Ceyhan oil pipeline, as well as TANAP project," he said.

"These projects are not only regional but also international in nature," he said.

The TANAP project envisages gas transportation from the Shah Deniz field to Europe via Turkey. The pipeline's initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters per year.
Around six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey and the rest to Europe. In the future, the pipeline capacity can be expanded to 31 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

There are plans to construct a new 105 kilometer branch of the railway as part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. Moreover, the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway section in Georgia will be reconstructed. This will increase its capacity to 15 million tons of cargo per year. There are also plans to construct a station for trains passing from the existing tracks in Georgia to the European one.

The peak capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. This figure will be at the level of one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo at the initial stage.


/Trend/