Armenians’ vandalism greatly damages Azerbaijan’s ecology

By  Trend

The Armenians’ vandalism greatly damages Azerbaijan’s ecology, Azerbaijani Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev said.

Babayev made the remarks in Baku at the international conference on illegal economic and other activity in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Trend reports on March 5.

“The international law must intervene and play a key role,” he added. “The occupation caused not only moral damage to the Azerbaijanis and claimed lives, but also caused enormous economic damage.”

"Azerbaijani forests, flora and fauna are destroyed, water is polluted,” he said. “About 100,000 hectares of Azerbaijani forests were destroyed as a result of deliberate arson by the Armenians."

The minister said that the Armenians continue to plunder Azerbaijan’s natural resources.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.