Russian peacekeepers' passenger vehicles pass freely through Azerbaijan's Lachin-Khankandi road

By Trend

e peaceful rally on Azerbaijan’s Lachin-Khankandi road to stop the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources, and to allow their monitoring, has been going on for sixteenth day, Trend reports from the scene.

At this moment, two passenger vehicles of Russian peacekeepers [temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan following the trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders after the 2020 second Karabakh war] have recently passed along the Lachin-Khankandi road.

Representatives of Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been protesting near Shusha, close to the Russian peacekeepers' temporary deployment area, for the sixteenth day. The protest is being held against the inadmissibility of Azerbaijani specialists to the territory, to monitor the illicit exploitation of the country's mineral resources.

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.