Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
73
between Armenia and Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed due to the on-going conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, but trade can find its way via a detour through Georgia or by air transport.
The involved OIC member states are presented in the table below and illustrated in the map in
Table 9: Corridor profile TRACECA routes T19-T22 and T24
Location Countries covered Length
(km)
Secretariat
Eastern Europe
to Central Asia
Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan
4,300 Baku, Azerbaijan
Note: Countries in bold are OIC Member Countries
Figure 27: TRACECA routes T19-T22 and T24
Source: Fimotions, 2017
In this case study, the wider issues concern the whole of TRACECA while the empirical details
are, as far as possible, focused on the studied routes and particularly Georgia and Azerbaijan at
the heart of the selected routes.
4.3.2. Political and Institutional Factors
TRACECA differs from most corridor initiatives since it is signed by heads of state and not, as
usual in corridor agreements, by ministers of infrastructure/transport or the like. The political
developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan troubled the signing, but EU conditioned the
funding upon Armenia’s inclusion but Armenia was represented by the prime minister rather
than the president at the first conference in Baku in 1998. The multilateral agreement
(TRACECA, 1998) is very important and acts as TRACECA’s constitution. A special feature that,
in the view of Mustafayev (2017), both helps and creates problems is that the decisions at
minister level must be taken in consensus. Important parts are the tariff agreements and the
technical annexes.
TURKEY
GEORGIA
TURKMENISTAN
UZBEKISTAN
TBILISI
BATUMI BAKU
TURKMENBASHI ASHGABAT
BUKHARA
YEREVAN
ANKARA
ISTANBUL
ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
Rustavi
Ozurgeti
Hopa
Sarpi
Samtredia
Kutaisi
Gandja
Zestaponi
Gori Boyuk-kesik
Akstafa
Razdan
Gumri
Oktemberyan
Kars
Erzurum
Sivas
Kayseri
Eskishehir
Derinjy
Uskudar Ali-bayramly
Nebit-Dag
Kazanjik
Tejen
Mary
Bayram-Ali
Turkmenabad
Saatly
Gardabani
IRAN
20
22
21
19
24
Sea Transport
Rail Transport
Road Transport
Route Number