Peaceful protester urges Armenians to stop environmental terrorism in Azerbaijani lands

SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, December 15. We urge the
Armenians to stop the environmental terrorism in Azerbaijani lands,
Student Gulustan Mukhtarova, taking part in the peaceful protests
near Shusha, close to the area of Russian peacekeepers’ temporary
deployment, told Trend’s correspondent at the scene on December 15.

“I’m studying a Master’s Degree at the Faculty of Biology of the
Baku State University. My specialty is the environmental
monitoring, so as an eco-biologist, I was obliged to support my
like-minded people,” she said.

Mukhtarova noted that the Armenians illegally exploit the
natural resources of Azerbaijan.

“These illicit actions affect negatively the country’s
environment and the regional ecosystem in total. We call on them to
put an end to the environmental terrorism,” she said.

Representatives of Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) have been protesting near Shusha, close to the Russian
peacekeepers’ temporary deployment area. The protest is being held
against the inadmissibility of Azerbaijani specialists to the
territory, to monitor the illicit exploitation of the country’s
mineral resources.

Previously, following the talks with the Russian peacekeepers’
command on December 3 and 7, 2022, a group of experts from the
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Property
Service under the Ministry of Economy, and AzerGold CJSC were going
to begin preliminary monitoring of the illicit mineral resource
exploitation, as well as emerging environmental implications on
Azerbaijani lands, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily
deployed, on December 10, 2022.

The expert team was expected to inspect the environmental
condition at the ‘Gizilbulagh’ gold deposit and the ‘Damirli’
copper-molybdenum deposit, monitor various areas, organize
cadastral property records, assess potential risks and threats to
the environment, as well as to underground and surface water
sources.

However, when arriving in the monitoring area, the expert group,
accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, faced provocations. The
planned initial inspection and monitoring did not take place due to
the fact that the Russian peacekeepers not only did not create
necessary conditions and prevented for the entire process to carry
on.