(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) Details added (first version posted at 15:47)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 9 . A peaceful protest
was held in front of the UN office in Vienna against the Armenian
environmental terrorism in Azerbaijan's territory, the State
Committee on Work with Diaspora told trend .
According to the Committee, protesters of the action, jointly
organized by the Academic community in Azerbaijan and the
Austria-Azerbaijan Association of Culture and Entrepreneurs
(AZER-DER), rallied against the illegal exploitation of
Azerbaijan's mineral resources in the temporary deployment area of
Russian peacekeepers.
Participants showed posters with the demands 'We protest against
the plunder of Azerbaijan's natural resources!', 'End Armenian
ecocide!', 'Stop environmental terrorism in the territory of
Azerbaijan!'. With this step, diaspora activists expressed
solidarity with Azerbaijani environmental activists, civil society
representatives, and volunteers protesting on the Lachin-Khankendi
road.
The protesters also underscored that Azerbaijanis living abroad
wouldn't turn a blind eye to the Armenian plundering of natural
resources of Azerbaijan and that the ecological terrorism committed
in Karabakh has already become a global problem.
The activists told local residents about the 30-year-long
occupation of Azerbaijani lands, the plundering of the country's
mineral resources, the water pollution in rivers and lakes, as well
as about the demolition of about 60,000 hectares of forest land.
The international community should support the sovereign right of
Azerbaijan to protect its natural resources and the country's
efforts to deal with the consequences of the second Karabakh war
and conduct large-scale construction work. The protesters urged the
international community to stop the eco-terrorism of Armenia in the
Azerbaijani territories.
The protest on the Lachin-Khankendi road against the illicit
exploitation of Azerbaijan's mineral resources in the area of
Russian peacekeepers' temporary deployment has been going on for
the twenty-ninth day.
Earlier, the Armenian media spread more fake news that the
Azerbaijanis allegedly blocked the Lachin-Khankendi road and didn't
let the supply vehicles through.
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.