Aram Sargsian: "Armenia lost real chances to participate in Great Silk Way"

Aram Sargsian, chairman of Democratic Party of Armenia, said this in the interview to ArmInfo that Armenia had real chances to contribute to construction of an alternative railway in Near East from Europe and the Central Asia, convincing the interested sides in necessity to restore the railway connection through Abkhazia. In response to the issue of ArmInfo whether RA Foreign Ministry would manage to do what RF Foreign Ministry failed to, Sargsian said that Russia has quite complicated relations with Georgia and Armenia could act as an active subject in this direction.

He emphasized that in 1998, in the course of the TRACECA conference in Baku, Armen Darbinian's, Head of Ministerial Cabinet of Armenia, report on construction of railway communication from Europe to the port of the Near East aroused interest of the European Ministers. "In order to reach the Near East ports, the Europeans have to sail across 5-6 seas, and it isn't surprising that we had been receiving the messages of 10 European Ambassadors during a month after the report," he said. He believes that Armenia missed the opportunity to participate in the Great Silk way, after refusing to hold the summit of the European Transport Ministers.

In response to the request of ArmInfo to comment on the fact that the draft law directed to isolation of Armenia was declined by the US House of Representatives and supported by the country in the chair of Shanghai Organization for Cooperation (earlier DPA stated that strengthening of SHOC is a favorable factor for the foreign policy of Armenia), Sargsian said that it is quite natural, as China gets dividends from direct railway communication with the Turkish ports, while USA is too far and isolated with oceans. He added that Armenia had to display interest to SHOC in time to get the support of China for realization of its alternative "Great Silk Way."