BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 23. A member of the "Environmental Protection First" (EPF) coalition Executive Director of the Public Association "Service for Health" Parvana Valiyeva raised the issue of environmental damage caused to Azerbaijan by Armenia's mining industry at the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on tuberculosis, Trend reports.
Speaking at the event, she emphasized that Armenia's mining activities are illegal and lack environmental norms and standards, posing a threat to both human health and the regional ecosystem.
"The EPF is currently engaged in advocacy efforts aimed at stopping Armenia's mining activities in the South Caucasus region, which grossly violate environmental norms and standards. Armenia, which bears responsibility for the release of highly toxic chemical waste into the environment, is polluting transboundary rivers, thereby grossly violating many internationally accepted conventions, including the UN Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the Espoo Convention). We condemn all attempts to harm the health of people and the regional ecosystem," Valiyeva stated.
Previously, Azerbaijani environmentalists issued an open letter to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, listing Armenian polluters of the environment. The letter stated that the deterioration of the ecosystem as a result of continuous mining operations endangers not just Armenia's ecology but also neighboring countries.
The open letter authors called on the prime minister to stop the construction of a new metallurgical plant being built in Arazdayan (Yeraskh) of Vedibasar region of Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan contrary to the requirements of environmental standards and international conventions, adding that the potential impact of this plant's toxic chemical waste on the local ecosystem could be enormous.