AGHDAM, Azerbaijan, March 16. Illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources must be stopped, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev during strategic consultations on cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UN in Aghdam city, Trend reports.
“We demand creating all necessary conditions for our specialists in the areas of natural resources' extraction in order to monitor the current state of the environment,” Babayev noted.
Azerbaijan's Aghdam hosts strategic consultations on cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UN.
The event is attended by the heads of Azerbaijan's Ministries of Ecology and Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Health, the State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture, the State Committee for Family, Women, and Children, the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), Special Representatives of the President of Azerbaijan, employees of the Presidential Administration represented in the Interdepartmental Center operating under the Coordination Headquarters, as well as senior officials of the offices of UN agencies operating in Azerbaijan.
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.