Diplomacy
Türkiye Targets 2029 for Kars-Dilucu Rail to Nakhchivan
September 16, 2026
4
Min
Türkiye expects to complete the Kars-Dilucu railway to the Nakhchivan border by the end of 2029, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku on 15 September, according to Trend. Tender procedures were completed some time ago and construction is under way, he said.
On the Azerbaijani side, Bayramov said the railway toward the Armenian border is about 75% complete and the parallel road about 95%, with both due in the first half of 2027, Trend reported. Reconstruction has also begun on roughly 190 kilometres of Soviet-era railway inside Nakhchivan that has been unused for more than 30 years.
Three sections, one missing link
The route Baku calls the Zangezur Corridor, and which last year's Washington agreements branded the TRIPP, has three parts. The Turkish section is the 224-kilometre Kars-Igdir-Dilucu line. The Nakhchivan section is the 190 kilometres now being rebuilt. And the Armenian section is about 42 kilometres through Syunik, connecting mainland Azerbaijan to the exclave.
Bayramov said the Azerbaijani side's latest information is that design work and the establishment of the project company for the Armenian section should be completed this year, with physical construction beginning in early 2027, adding that American partners provide regular updates. Once work begins, he argued, a stretch of slightly more than 40 kilometres can be finished relatively quickly. He also restated Baku's position that because both entry and exit points sit on Azerbaijani territory, the corridor can operate only in that configuration, a framing Yerevan has consistently rejected in favour of Armenian sovereignty over the route.
The trade behind the rail
Bayramov put Azerbaijan-Türkiye trade at $5.7 billion in 2025 and above $3.2 billion in the first eight months of 2026, with Azerbaijani investment in Türkiye exceeding $20 billion, Turkish direct investment in Azerbaijan above $18 billion and more than 4,000 Turkish companies operating in the country, per Trend. Fidan said both governments are working through institutions and chambers of commerce toward the $15 billion trade target set by the two presidents, according to Trend.
A 110-point economic roadmap adopted by the intergovernmental commission in December 2025 is being implemented, Bayramov said, describing it as short-horizon rather than decades-long, Trend reported. Fidan called the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway one of the most important components of the Middle Corridor and said Ankara wants it used efficiently.
What the dates imply
If the Azerbaijani and Turkish timelines hold, the mainland-to-border rail is done in mid-2027, Kars-Dilucu at end-2029, and Nakhchivan's internal line somewhere in between. The Armenian link is the swing variable: design and company formation are said to be due this year and construction in early 2027, but no contractor, cost or financing has been published. Until it is built, Kars-Dilucu terminates at an exclave connected to mainland Azerbaijan only by air or by road transit through Iran.
Caveats
Trade of just over $3.2 billion in eight months annualises to roughly $4.8 billion or a little more, below 2025's $5.7 billion, which sits awkwardly beside a $15 billion target that has no stated deadline. Railway completion dates in the region have a record of slipping; BTK opened years behind its original schedule, and the 2029 estimate for Kars-Dilucu comes from a foreign minister rather than a construction programme. The most concrete facts here are the percentages on the Azerbaijani side; everything west of Dilucu and east of Meghri is still a plan.
