ROUTE TO CAUCASUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 6

ROUTE TO CAUCASUS

ROADS BAD IN EASTERN TURKEY. RAILWAY OF CHANGING GAUGE. If a western European Power attempted to reach the oil-rich Russian Caucasus region through Turkey, the restricted rail and road facilities of Eastern Turkey might seriously impede the transport of men and materials to the Soviet frontier. “Only one through rail line reaches the Caucasus area from the west or south. The line runs from central Turkey -''through Erzincan and Erzurum to the Russian border and Tiflis, capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic,” points out a bulletin from the American National Geographic Society. “Soldiers or supplies moving eastward through Turkey on the single railway line to the Georgian border must change trains twice and ride over tracks of three different widths. West of Erzurum, the line is of standard European gauge. A narrow-gauge mountain railway joins Erzurum with Sarikamis, while eastward of that town the trackage is of the Russian measure, which is wider than the European. “Eastern Turkey is a mountainous country. Since the region has been inhabited by pastoral and farming people since the earliest times, there is an intricate network of horse and foot trails and, in places, of thirdrate roads which often peter out on steep slopes or in rocky gorges. Recent maps show only two highways spanning Eastern Turkey to meet Russian and Iranian (Persian) roads at the border. “Of these two routes, the more southerly leads from the road and rail system of Central Turkey, past Mount Ararat of Biblical fame, and into north-western Iran. The northerly road starts at the Black Sea port of Trabzon (ancient Trebizond), cuts south-eastward through the mountains to meet the railroad at Erzurum, and forks east of that town. The north branch follows the rails through Kars to Leninakan in Russia,, while the southern fork connects with a highway to Iran. It is a question how well adapted these highways through difficult country are to the heavy mechanised and motorised traffic of modern war. “Between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, the transportation lines are more numerous and probably in better condition. The Berlin-Bagdad railroad, linking Istanbul (Constantinople! with Ankara, northern Syria, and the oil fields of Iraq, has been completed. Another rail line sweeps across south-eastern Turkey to the border town of Cizre, where it meets a good highway leading south into Iraq. Several other auto roads join Turkey with Syria and Iraq.”