BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 6. The peaceful protest rally on Azerbaijan’s Lachin-Khankendi road has been proposed to be discussed at a meeting of the Commission on Environment, Natural Resources and Health Protection of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) in Baku, Trend reports.
During the meeting, Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Parliament, Committee Chairman Ali Huseynli expressed the opinion that TURKPA will support the rally.
He noted that in recent years the member states of TURKPA have shown the brotherhood and unity.
"For 85 days on the Lachin-Khankendi road, Azerbaijani activists have been expressing their protest against environmental pollution. As in all issues, in this issue we believe that the member states of TURKPA will support the just cause of Azerbaijan. I think that this issue will be discussed at today's meeting," the official added.
The peaceful protest on the Lachin-Khankendi road against the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's mineral resources in the area of Russian peacekeepers' temporary deployment has been going on since December 12, 2022.
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, the expert group, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, faced provocations when arriving in the monitoring area. 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 but also prevented the entire process from carrying on.