Azerbaijan Releases Map Exposing Adverse Environmental Impacts Of Armenia's Mining Industry

(MENAFN- AzerNews) The“Environmental Protection First” Coalition, which bringstogether NGOs fighting against Armenia's illegal mining industry,released a map of“Mineral raw material resources of the Republicof Armenia” at the Baku Business Centre today, Azernews reports.

The map has been prepared by the“Azerbaijan Cartographers”Public Union, which is also part of the Coalition, in threelanguages – Azerbaijani, English, and Armenian.

The map contains important information exposing the adverseenvironmental impacts of Armenia's mining industry. It is clearfrom the map that Armenia has deliberately concentrated miningindustry enterprises, causing the most severe damage to theenvironment, mainly in the Western Zangazur region – in territoriesbordering the Republic of Azerbaijan and close to transboundaryrivers.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan's NGOs have recently carriedout some exemplary work.

The donor of the“Azerbaijan Cartographers” Public Union'scartographic work project dedicated to the important topic is theState Agency for the Support of Non-Governmental Organizations.

We recall that on July 11 last year, during a meeting dedicatedto the socioeconomic results of the first six months of 2023chaired by President Ilham Aliyev, the head of state said:“Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur were very close to the environmentaldisaster zone. Armenia has dealt a severe blow to our nature as aresult of the activities of its enterprises and also as a result ofthe ruthless exploitation of our natural resources in the occupiedlands of Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur... The cross-border threatsmust now be taken into account, and Azerbaijan's position here isstill based on international experience and internationalconventions, including the Espoo Convention. Anyone can review themon the Internet. It is stated there that the pollution oftransboundary rivers and the establishment of enterprises that canbe considered a source of ecological threat close to the borderwith other countries must be agreed upon with such neighbouringcountries, and we demand this from Armenia. Today, the Azerbaijanipublic and non-governmental organisations have already issued anappeal to the Armenian authorities regarding this issue, andinternational experts and representatives of non-governmentalorganisations working in the field of environment have also joinedthis appeal. Therefore, I think that the government of Azerbaijanshould also join this process.”

During the meeting, the head of state also praised theactivities of Azerbaijan's civil society in this direction andurged Armenia to give up these dangerous practices.“If they wantto create an enterprise, we certainly can't have anything to dowith that. It is their internal business. But if this enterprise islocated 500 meters from our border, if dangerous substances aregoing to be used there, and if these substances are going to bespilled into the Araz River and the Okhchuchay River, this is verymuch an issue for us. How can we ever agree to that? Of course, wemust pay attention to these issues within the framework of law,within the framework of international conventions, and within theframework of diplomacy” ( ).

The NGO meeting at the Baku Business Centre considered itimportant to carry out environmental monitoring of Armenia's miningindustry enterprises.

The“Environmental Protection First” Coalition has stated thatcivil society organisations operating in the field of environmentand healthcare in Armenia and other countries are ready to conductenvironmental monitoring of Armenia's mining industry enterprisestogether with international institutions.

The author of the map is Mugabil Bayramov, anengineer-cartographer with 43 years of experience in the field ofcartography, former director of the Baku Cartography Factory, headof cartographic groups that have developed the“National Atlas ofthe Republic of Azerbaijan”,“South Caucasus, 1903”,“Map of theCaucasus - Tbilisi 1847”, and chairman of the“AzerbaijanCartographers” Public Union. In 2020, he was awarded the Order ofLabor of Third Category in recognition of his services in the fieldof environmental protection.

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