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.