Azerbaijan ready to provide transit of Turkish goods to Central Asia

Akif Mustafayev, TRACECA national secretary for Azerbaijan, told local media that Turkey asked Azerbaijan to ensure transportation of goods through Azerbaijan due to a ban imposed by Russia, and the initiative has been approved by Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani side will ensure the entry of Turkish trucks in Azerbaijan, he said, noting that the decision were made before the recent Russian-Turkish rift.

The relationship between Moscow and Ankara frayed last week after Turkish airforces shot down a Russian plane. Turkey insisted that the fighter jet violated its airspace despite multiply warnings, while Russia said its plane was shot down over Syria.

"The situation has developed in such a way that traffic flows are now being sent via Azerbaijan. Russia bans transportation of Turkish goods, relations between Turkey and Iran are not quite warm either. In this situation the only and the shortest route for Turkish trucks is Turkey-Georgia- Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea-Central Asia," he said, adding that Azerbaijan is likely to lower tariffs for the transportation of Turkish goods.

According to Mustafayev, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be put into operation at the end of 2016.

Russia put brakes on Turkey's truck traffic last week and stopped issuing transit passage documents to Turkish trucks carrying exports to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia in response to the downing of the Russian jet on Nov. 24.

Russian border guards left Turkish trucks stranded at the border and announced the confiscation of large quantities of Turkish food imports.

Turkey said that the SU-24 fighter jet had flown into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings, noting that it would not have shot it down if it had known it was Russian. Moscow said it was shot down by a missile fired from a Turkish jet inside Syria.

Azerbaijan, sharing close historical ties both with Turkey and Russia, said last week that it is ready to do its best to de-escalate tensions in Turkish-Russian relations.