Minister Uraloğlu makes statements on the Development Road and Zangezur Corridor. He explains the developments with an elephant analogy

Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu was a guest on Haber Global. Uraloğlu made statements regarding the Development Road, the Zangezur Corridor, and other corridors.

Highlights from Minister Uraloğlu's statements are as follows:

"IF WE HAD OPENED THE DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR TODAY..."

Even someone who does not know Turkey's position could look at the map and say this is the most valuable geography. Let's talk about all of them, from the Development Road to the Zangezur Corridor. Turkey's position shows the primary trade routes in our geography. North, middle, and south corridors. There is trouble in the north due to the Russia-Ukraine war; the south is the most heavily used, predominantly by sea. This was the corridor currently in use, but it has decreased significantly due to the problems in Yemen, Palestine, and Israel. The Suez Canal was so valuable, but now there is trouble. If we had opened the Development Road today, it would have been perfect.

"WE WANT TO HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE CORRIDOR AT OUR DISPOSAL"

It is a line that starts in Beijing, exits through the Turkic Republics, reaches the Caspian Sea in Baku, and connects via Tbilisi and Kars through Azerbaijan. There has been maintenance on the Georgian side of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line for 1 year; it will open at the end of April. By building the Zangezur Corridor, we are both providing additional capacity and ensuring that we have an alternative corridor at our disposal in case of any trouble.

"IRAN IS ALSO WARM TO THIS IDEA"

The part starting from Baku to Horadiz is finished, the part up to Armenia is ongoing, then there is the Armenian side of the Zangezur Corridor; Armenia had clear resistance to this, the Lachin Corridor was being discussed, and it was being discussed in response, but the Lachin Corridor is off the agenda.

For a few months, we have been following the statements of both Pashinyan and the Minister; they now look positively upon it passing through their own countries, but a 61 km corridor through Iran is also being discussed.

Iran is also warm to this idea. That will be clarified; Armenia or Iran, there is Nakhchivan, it will be overhauled in the first stage. A tender has been held for what must be 224 km to Iğdır and Kars, and construction will begin this year. When it is finished, we will have a high-capacity alternative route.

"WE ARE NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT TRANSPORTATION"

We are not just talking about transportation; we are talking about energy and communication transmission lines, and we are talking about security. Here, we are also talking about a security road; it will contribute to security in that region. The IMEC Corridor is a corridor proposed at the G20; it was intended to be an alternative to the Development Road.

These projects are not just transportation projects; they are important projects ranging from communication to energy transmission lines. We are in such a critical place that Yemen has closed the entrance to the Gulf, and it is not even a state, so we can see how valuable such routes are. You pave the way for all kinds of investment and development there if you reach it. Places like Konya in Marmara, and Kayseri in Antep have developed because all kinds of transportation were provided. When these corridors arrive, you will not only be transporting cargo, but you will also reach many logistics centers.

In Iğdır, many people asked me about these corridors; there are many people, from professors to students, who do not know about them. I was very surprised that so many people in Iğdır were asking.

MINISTER URALOĞLU EXPLAINED WITH AN 'ELEPHANT' ANALOGY

They put a huge elephant in a closed area and told someone to go inside and understand what it was; each of them held a different part and said something different, none of them could describe the elephant because they do not see the whole animal, but when we look at the map, we see the whole thing.

The entry gate of the Development Road to our country is Ovaköy; currently, there is no line up to Nusaybin. There is a line from Mardin to Şanlıurfa, then to Gaziantep, continuing to Mersin, and from Yenice to Aksaray; there is a line coming to Karaman that is under construction, from here we go to Polatlı, Ankara, and then to Sivas, from Eskişehir to Istanbul, to Çerkezköy, Halkalı... You entered from Kapıkule and exited from Ovaköy, those whose projects are completed and ongoing, and you also connect to the Turkic world via Zangezur.

"WE ARE BUILDING MOST OF THE ONGOING PROJECTS WITH FOREIGN LOANS"

Let me also mention Ankara and İzmir; it will be finished by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, and we will have woven 29 thousand km of new iron networks.

Currently, we are building most of the ongoing projects with foreign loans; those that started between 2015-2018 for railways are currently being built at rates suitable for the world market, there is also domestic financing, it varies according to the size, it continues as a mix.

We have just started producing the wheels for the railways ourselves, everything is essentially based on that. Think of it like cars pressing onto the ground."