“If you ask me today, which sector is the most important for the economy of Armenia, I will say: mining,” Director of the Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Chemical Technologies of the National Polytechnic University of Armenia, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Armen Hovhannisyan told Iravaban.net.
According to him, although many people understand its importance, there are people who deliberately target both the mining industry and the companies engaged in it. Hovhannisyan believes that both real environmental problems and so-called “environmentalists” are misunderstood in society. The professor states that it is necessary to create a front against the “fake environmentalists”, because he is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and cannot hide or cover up what “those people” have done.
“The latter, in many cases, pour water into the mill of Azerbaijan without justification, I mean it literally. I do not know where these people are financed from. Whatever we get from the soil is for our nation. But where are these people financed from? How do I know that Azerbaijan does not finance them,” Armen Hovhannisyan says.
According to him, some of them give occasions and chances to Azerbaijan, so that the latter takes measures against Armenia at convenient moments and directions. The professor notes that even if there are problems, they should be discussed within the “family”.
“I do not understand why the relevant bodies are not dealing with this issue. We even ask them not to engage in such activities. As a representative of the academic community, I am well aware of the situation; we urge them to be discreet. There was a man who caught a butterfly on the mine, on the mountain, and said, “Let the mine not work, because the butterfly lives here,” the Director of the institute says.
Notably, back in 2018, the working group established by the order of the Minister of Environmental Protection conducted a study in the area of the Amulsar mine, as a result of which it did not find the “Hedgehog dianthus” plant species registered in the Red Book and the fodder for laying eggs of the “Apollon” type of butterfly registered in the Red Book (according to the Red Book of RA Animals: this butterfly lays its eggs on the substrate around the larval food plant “Sedum caucasicum”).
Minister Erik Grigoryan stated that Amulsar is not the nesting place of the said butterfly. Also, the plant that was mentioned is not “Hedgehog dianthus”.
Let us also remind that last year it became known that 20 civil society organizations from 9 countries and 7 international environmental and human rights organizations joined the CEE Bankwatch Network’s letter to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on 15 September, 2023, calling for a review the 2024-28 investment strategy in the field of mining. Among those 9 countries are Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Mongolia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan and Ugandan environmental NGOs.
The appeal to the EBRD also targets the mining industry of Armenia. It will not be superfluous to note that the mining industry is the main sector of Armenia’s economy and it accounts for more than half of the country’s export volume.
