SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, December 23. All conditions
for the movement of supply vehicles of Russian peacekeepers
[temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan following the trilateral
statement of Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders after the
2020 second Karabakh war] were created on the Khankandi-Lachin road
passing through Shusha, Trend reports from the scene.
A new batch of supply vehicles moved towards Khankandi without
any issues.
Furthermore, 11 supply vehicles of peacekeepers have earlier
driven along the road without any incidents.
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.
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