SHUSHA, Azerbaijan, December 24. The peaceful rally continues on Azerbaijan’s Khankandi-Lachin road to stop the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources, and to allow their monitoring, Trend reports from the scene.
At present, the Azerbaijani protesters are chanting slogans about the need for primary monitoring of the environmental catastrophe and other implications stemming from the illicit mineral resource exploitation. Peaceful protesters say they're not going to leave the area until their demands are met.
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. During today, 25 supply vehicles of peacekeepers have passed 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.