Okhchuchay tragedy is environmental terror committed against the humanity

Economic crisis Armenia faced makes it commit environmental crimes

44-day Patriotic War in 2020 ended with great military and political victory of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani army finished Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which international law had not been able to resolve for 30 years, liberated its territories, which had been groaned under the enemy for almost thirty years, and raised glorious Azerbaijani flag on its historical lands with honour and pride.

As a result of the monitoring conducted by the specialists of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan (MENR) in Nagorno Karabakh and surrounding regions after the liberation of the lands from the occupation, terrible facts were revealed. One of these facts was environmental terror committed by Armenia in Okhchuchay.

Okhchuchay is industrial wastes collector in Armenia

Okhchuchay river forms left tributary of Araz river, which is the second largest river in the South Caucasus. Major part of 83 km long river is located in Sunik region of Armenia (historical region of Azerbaijan called Zangazur). Its lower bed flows through the territory of Zangilan region liberated from Armenian occupation into Araz river. At the same time, being the largest right tributary of Kura river, Araz river is another transboundary river passing through the territory of Armenia.

High content of heavy metals, especially copper, molybdenum, manganese, iron, zinc and chromium, were found in the water samples taken from Okhchuchay by the specialists of MENR in January-June 2021. Pursuant to the monitoring reports, the content of the copper- molybdenum compound in the river was two, of iron — four and nickel — seven times higher than standard limits. The colour of the river periodically changed due to the pollution. During visual monitoring conducted in the part of the river passing through Shayifli and Jahangirbayli villages of Zangilan, mass mortality of thousands of Small Trout and Barbus included in “Red Book” of the Republic of Azerbaijan were observed.  In order to attract the attention of international community to the matter related to ecological disaster in the river, Azerbaijan had to appeal to the authoritative laboratories of foreign countries. The analysis conducted in internationally accredited and certified SGS laboratory (Germany) revealed high content of heavy metals, especially iron, copper, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, chromium, nickel, etc. in the river. It even revealed that the content of hazardous substances in the deposit samples exceeded standard limits several times, and the river pollution level was found to be critical.

The researches revealed that the waste waters of Gafan and Gajaran ore mining industry are discharged directly to the river without any cleaning. This river is also used as a collector of the southern cities of Armenia. All the domestic water and sewage systems are discharged into this river. That is why, the pollution level in Okhchuchay river has reached critical level.

 Economic crisis makes Armenia commit environmental crimes

Due to global financial crisis in the world in 2009, the demand for copper, gold and other precious metals in international markets sharply increased. Armenia, economic situation in which was difficult, took this opportunity to strengthen its mining industry. Gajaran copper- molybdenum plant and Gafan ore processing plant expanded their production without observing environmental standards. Pursuant to statistical indicators, more than a half (51%) of Armenia’s export operations in recent years accounted for the mining industry. In industrial products structure by the production areas, the mining industry occupies approximately the second place. Of course, «Cronimet» company (Germany) «helped» Armenia in this matter. «Cronimet» company, headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, does not comply with environmental standards in its activities, so at present not only Zangilan region, Azerbaijan, but also the whole South Caucasus region is faced the threat of environmental terror.

By the way, «Cronimet» company is in close relations with Armenian lobbying organization in Germany. Pursuant to the information received from this country, Günter Pilarsky, the founder and Executive director of “Cronimet” company, is also Honorary Consulate of Armenia in Baden Wuertemberg. Mikayel Minasyan, son-in-law of former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, is a shareholder of Gajaran copper- molybdenum plant. There are indications that the former leadership of Armenia and «Cronimet» had corruptive partnerships. The company had been able to avoid taxes for many years.  But there is another interesting fact in this matter…

Why does not Armenia want to join Helsinki Convention?

The UN Economic Commission for Europe adopted the convention «On the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes» (Helsinki Convention) in Helsinki, the capital of Finland in March 1992. There were the alterations made in the Convention «On the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes» at the meeting of the Commission held in Madrid city in November 2003 and it was considered acceptable for all the UN member states to join this convention. By the decision of Milli Majlis, supreme legislative body of the Republic of Azerbaijan adopted in March 2000, the country joined Helsinki Convention. Unfortunately, Armenia, which calls itself democratic state, has not became a party to mentioned convention for the past 30 years. And what is the reason of this?  The reason becomes clear when we look at above mentioned facts about that Armenia polluted Okhchuchay transboundary river with heavy metals and turned Okhchuchay basin into “dead zone”. By polluting Okhchuchay river, Armenia not only damages the ecology of Azerbaijan, but also foredooms the South Caucasus region, as well the Caspian Sea basin to ecological disaster. In other words, nowadays Armenia continues its environmental terror against the humanity. Is anyone going to terminate this?