Is the new border crossing between Georgia and Turkey at Kartsakhi open to foreigners?

Question

I was just reading a Quora post on the longest overland trip in the world and it mentions crossing from Georgia to Turkey at Kartsakhi. I've crossed between these countries probably half a dozen times and used both crossings I knew of. But the last time was in 2012 I think.

So I did some searching and found an article on the opening of the border checkpoint, but it doesn't mention whether people who are neither Georgian nor Turkish are permitted to cross.

(It's only a couple of months since I turned up at a border crossing from Cambodia to Vietnam that everybody thought I could cross and found out it's only for locals. So I'm pretty sure this is common for crossings in various parts of the world.)

Answer 1

I have not been able to find any restrictions on the border crossing by foreigners on the Kartsakhi.

Actually the most news on the subject I was able to find on Russian and Azeri news sites specifically with respect to the high speed rail project Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (Russian) where Kartsakhi would be the border crossing station for rail traffic on the line.

On top of this Kartsakhi is being viewed as a means to improve tourist flow into Georgia (Russian), so I don't see them imposing the restrictions on foreigners entering the country to locals only after it's fully open given this view.

Answer 2

Yes! It opened in October 2015:

Official Georgian announcement.

I learned of this and borrowed the image from a post on Quora about interesting border crossings.