Environmental activists and ecologists representing Azerbaijan’s nongovernmental organizations (NGO) continued their protest against the "illegal" mining of natural resources on Azerbaijani land in the disputed region of Karabakh for the second day in a row on Tuesday. The disputed region of Karabakh houses Armenians and temporary Russian peacekeepers.
After Baku appealed to Moscow early on Monday to allow its officials to enter the liberated Karabakh territory to investigate the "illegal exploitation" of its mines, a group of demonstrators set up tents on the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting the town of Stepanakert (Khankendi) to Armenia near the district of Shusha.
The protestors are calling for an end to the illegal operation of mines by the Armenian population in the area and the subsequent environmental impact, local media reported Tuesday.
Protestors are demanding entry into the area where the two mines are located and have repeatedly requested Andrey Volkov, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping force, to come down to the site. Despite the cold weather, the protestors refuse to leave until their demands are met. In the meantime, they are trying to stay warm by lighting fires, reports said.
Taleh Şahsuvarlı, one of the protestors, said that their demands were "fair and just and under international law, as well as the Azerbaijani Constitution."
"We have no intention of withdrawing," Şahsuvarlı told Anadolu Agency (AA). "Our demands must be addressed and illegal mining on Azerbaijani soil and exploitation of Azerbaijan’s natural resources must be terminated. Azerbaijan should audit these operations here, discern the damage done to the state and the public and this damage must be compensated," Şahsuvarlı emphasized.
Another protestor, Elgün Gencimsoy, argued the group was only "staging a civilian protest and demanding their rights."
"We want those looting Azerbaijan’s natural resources to be subjected to criminal liability. We will not stop protesting so long as our demands are not met," Gencimsoy said.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s Foreign Policy Advisor Hikmet Hacıyev slammed the Russian Defense Ministry for alleging that the Azerbaijanis "blocked" the Lachin corridor.
"It wasn’t Azerbaijani protestors who blocked the Lachin road; it was the Russian peacekeepers," Hajiyev said Tuesday following a meeting with diplomats in Baku.
"Azerbaijani NGO representatives are trying to prevent the illegal transportation of looted natural resources; they’re not interfering in the movement of other civilian transport vehicles," he said.
Armenia joined its ally Russia as well in accusing Azerbaijan of closing the Lachin road and "threatening a humanitarian crisis" on Armenian residents in the area. Baku dismissed Armenian claims as "baseless," assuring Azerbaijan was "ready to facilitate humanitarian needs of all Armenians living on its territories."
Azerbaijan struck a deal with the commandership of the Russian peacekeeping contingent following negotiations last week for its experts to probe the Kızılbulak gold mine and the Demirli copper mine in Azerbaijani land housing Armenians, citing information that looting and illegal exploitation was observed in the region. However, Azerbaijani experts were prevented from entering the area by Armenians, which spurred the protest.
On Monday, the country’s Foreign Ministry sent a diplomatic note to Russia concerning the issue, urging it to facilitate "unhindered access" to the mentioned mines.
Baku emphasized it was "unacceptable to obstruct such a trip or to impose any conditions" and stressed the need for the Russian peacekeeping contingent to "strictly observe the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan in all its activities" per the peace agreement signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in November 2020.
Early on Wednesday, Azerbaijan also highlighted that Yerevan was not fulfilling its obligations under a statement signed after the Karabakh war in 2020, including the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijani territory, as it abuses the Lachin road for military provocations and obstructs the opening of all transport communications in the region
The two former Soviet republics have been at loggerheads since the 1990s over the control of Karabakh, which was internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but illegally occupied by Armenia for three decades until 2020.
Baku and Yerevan fought two wars over the territory in the 1990s and again in the autumn of 2020 when six weeks of particularly intense clashes saw over 6,500 lives lost before a Russian-brokered truce ended the hostilities.
Under the 2020 deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had illegally occupied for decades and Russia stationed a force of 2,000 peacekeepers in the region to oversee a fragile truce after the three parties ratified the peacekeeping mission.
Moscow holds an active role in ongoing efforts to normalize relations and resolve the dispute between Baku and Yerevan.