Red Bridge (border)

The Red Bridge

Red Bridge (Azerbaijani: Qırmızı Körpü; Georgian: წითელი ხიდი, Tsiteli Khidi) is the crossing point between Georgia and Azerbaijan on the Tbilisi to Ganja road.^[1] The term translates into English as Red Bridge, and is so named because there is a red-brick bridge arch bridge across the Khrami River in the no-man's land area between the border posts. The bridge's current structure is mostly 17th century, but there has been a bridge on the site since the 12th century crossing. The 'red' bridge was in day to day use up until 1998, when a new and considerably larger bridge was completed as part of the TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) project.

Red Bridge Market

Throughout the 1990s there was a large no-man's land market here^[2] largely operated by ethnic Azerbaijanis from Georgia's Marneuli area. The market was controversially closed in spring 2006 as part of Georgia's anti-smuggling campaign, a move that was seen by some of Georgia's ethnic Azerbaijanis as designed to encourage them to leave (and relocate to Azerbaijan).^[3]

References

Coordinates: 41°19′45″N 45°04′23″E / 41.3292°N 45.0731°E / 41.3292; 45.0731