MFA_Report_on_the_occupied_territories_March_2016_1

As of 2015, approximately 460 mines in Armenia already have permission for exploitation, out
of which 27 are metal mines, and additional 85 metal mines are currently in the study phase
and waiting to be exploited. As a result, there are already about eight hundred million tons of
tailings in 23 open and closed tailing dumps, saturated with heavy metals and other dangerous
substances, 553 especially in the Syunik district of Armenia, bordering the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. The fate of those wastes is of serious concern, given earlier reports about frequent
hazardous leaks through the protective dams and pipes leading to the tailing dumps and
ponds, 554 and that some of the waste had been polluting the occupied territories. There are
reports that point to the deliberate efforts to pollute the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Almost
all of the rivers that originate in Armenia enter the Kur and Araz Rivers of Azerbaijan. There
is also trans-boundary pollution from the tailings in Armenia that pollute rivers that cross the
international border of Azerbaijan and end up in the Azerbaijani farmlands and forests. There is
a well-documented evidence that waters of the rivers in Armenia’s Syunik district, polluted with
wastes from the Kapan Ore Processing Plant and Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine
and “Artsvanik” tailing dump, flow into the trans-boundary Okhchuchay River, 555 which flows into
the occupied Zangilan district and the Araz River, thus creating environmental risks for a number
of downstream urban and rural communities in Azerbaijan. 556
Relentless exploitation of farmlands in the occupied territories for many years has also led to
their depletion.
XVI.
Archaeological excavations, embezzlement of artefacts, altering of cultural character
of the occupied territories
The occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan has also had
catastrophic consequences for the country’s cultural heritage
in the occupied territories. 557 Armenia continues to interfere in
the cultural environment of the occupied territories by taking
consistent measures aimed at altering their historical and
cultural features. 558
Architectural monuments of national importance in those
territories include the sixth century Albanian Aghoghlan cloister
and the fourteenth century Malik Ajdar tomb in Lachyn, the
fourth century Albanian Amaras cloister and a considerable
number of Albanian temples in Khojavand, the eighteenth
century Asgaran castle, fourteenth century tombs and a number
of Albanian temples dating back to the Middle Ages in Khojaly,
the sixth century Albanian Saint Jacob and thirteenth century
Albanian Khatiravang cloisters and the thirteenth-fourteenth
centuries Lekh castle in Kalbajar, the Albanian cloister of the
fifth to eighth centuries in Gazakh, the thirteenth-fourteenth
Ruins of Yukhary Govhar Agha Mosque in
the occupied town of Shusha
553
See “Time for Armenia to Choose: Mining for Development or Systematic Plunder?”, Hetq.am, 30 March 2015, .
554
See “New Player To Enter Armenian Mining Sector”, Azatutyun.am, 15 May 2015, .
555
See “Ecologists Take Ministry to Court Over Polluted River”, Hetq.am, 21 November 2012, ; See UN
Doc. A/58/594-S/2003/1090,13 November 2003.
556
See “Kapan Town Residents Accuse Nature Protection Ministry of Inactions in Regard with Voghji River”, Ecolur.org, 13 July2011,
;
See also Lubomir I. Simeonov, Mihail V. Kochubovski, Biana G. Simeonova (eds.), “The Problem of Heavy
Metal Pollution in the Republic of Armenia: Overview and Strategies of Balancing Socioeconomic and Ecological Development”, in
Environmental Heavy Metal Pollution and Effects on Child Mental Development (2011), p. 312.
557
For detailed information, see “War against Azerbaijan: Targeting Cultural Heritage” (Baku, 2007), also available at .
558
See “Berdzor science museum to open in Karabakh by early 2011 – archeologist”, Newsarmenia.ru, 22 October 2010, ; “Progress is Fixed in the Excavation-Research Works in the Territory of Artsakh”,
Artsakhtert.com, 15 May 2012, ;
“Archaeological excavations of the city
of Tigranakert in Artsakh to get under way June 15”, Panorama.am, 05 June 2010, .
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