Yerevan’s poor environmental record is replicated by separatists in Karabakh Armenian refutation and its limitations

Armenia and the separatist forces in the part of Karabakh, under the temporary control of the Russian 'peacekeepers', have consistently attempted to blur the central environmental cause of the eco-protest, presently underway on the Lachin-Khankandi Road. They have done their utmost to shift the focus to the alleged difficulties experienced by the region’s population, claiming that the obstruction of the road comes with a humanitarian cost. There is indeed a genuine ethical patch, within the tapestry of the competing Azerbaijani and Armenian narratives, which is not to do with the latter's "blockade theory", but with the former's ecological concerns.

What we know today, on the basis of the verifiable information emanating from the locality of the demonstration, is that movement in both directions remains unhindered for civilians and humanitarian cars, with vehicles of the Russian ´peacekeeping´ contingent and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) passing freely in an unimpeded manner. The route is functional, in line with its humanitarian mandate. What the protest may have obstructed is the misuse of the Lachin Road for a panoply of illicit purposes, such as the transportation of landmines, illegally extricated raw materials and the movement of the separatist leaders, who have long existed outside the legal space.

Two aspects of illegality 

What makes the environmental concern of the eco-protestors particularly forceful is that the ongoing exploitation of Karabakh’s gold and copper-molybdenum resources does not just militate against Azerbaijan’s sovereign rights, but raises the question of the plundering of the region’s precious reserves without demonstrating any respect for environmental standards and human lives. As much as Ruben Vardanyan, the so-called first minister of the unrecognised and illegal ´NKR’, may desire to create a degree of economic self-sufficiency for the separatist entity, he is also conscious of the temporality with which his “tenure” is encumbered.

An act of plunder of any kind reaches a higher degree of egregious voraciousness when there is no proper regulation and the spell within which it is conducted is bounded by time, however undefined as is the case for Vardanyan in Karabakh. That the exploitation of the region’s deposits is carried out in violation of environmental safeguards is not merely an exclusively Azerbaijani outlook. As the Ecolur information portal reports, the representatives of the “Pan-Armenian Environmental Front” civic initiative, Yeghia Nersissian, Levon Galstyan and Anna Alamazyan have recently, during their trip to the US, claimed that the resources of Armenia and those of Karabakh “are being developed rather aggressively, without taking into consideration the consequences as to how it will affect the safety of the people”.

The Teghout project and its environmental implications

For instance, the case involving the now-closed Teghut (Teghout) copper and molybdenum open-pit mine, operated by Teghout CJSC, which is run and, at least, partly owned by Russian-Armenian businessman Valeri Mejlumyan via the Vallex Group of Companies, is worthy of closer inspection on numerous grounds. As the journalistic investigation conducted by the Armenian Hetq media portal suggests, with the mine’s ownership being constructed along a complicated circuitous financial labyrinth, it is difficult to determine with whom Meljumyan shared its profits or who dérives the current profits of his existing operations.

Registered in Armenia in 2006, Teghout CJSC was initially fully owned by the Armenian Copper Programme CJSC (ACP), a member of the aforementioned Vallex Group.  In 2008, 100% of its shares were transferred to the Cypriot-registered Teghout Investments Ltd, wherein two major shareholders were ACP with 50.05% and VTB Group, a subsidiary of VTB Bank, with 95.55%. However, the information obtained from the Cypriot State Registry, back in 2014, offered a different picture, with the second shareholder being shown as Nairi Infrastructure Capital Limited. The latter, also registered in Cyprus, is owned by A.T.S Nominees Limited, where three Greek citizens, sharing the same surname and identical addresses, are listed as owners. Here, we see all the trappings of an opaque arrangement, aimed at hiding other figures implicated in benefiting from the business. 

What is specifically noteworthy about the Teghout project, for the purpose of this article, is that before its launch, it was predicted that it would lead to the destruction of 357 hectares of forest, amounting to 128,000 trees. This fear was partly materialised, with 140 hectares of forest being eliminated and ore crushing and enrichment resulting in the pollution of a nearby local river and groundwater, due to repeated instances of mine waste leakage.

It is not just in Armenia that the Meljumyan-led Vallex Group is operational. Its one arm, Base Metal CJSC, infiltrated into the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, replicates the self-same practices of the Teghout project in relation to the Gyzilbulag and Demirli deposits, the exploitation of which have understandably caused a massive uproar in Azerbaijan.

The case of the Okchuchay River

On a different note, Armenia’s own poor record of adherence to established international environmental standards has had its own fair share of impact upon Azerbaijan, reaching beyond Karabakh. The ecological situation surrounding the Okhcuchay River is a case in point. The river was once home to a wide range of wildlife, carp, blackfish, black-spotted goldfish, catfish and some protected rare species, but has now turned yellow, due to contamination, killing all flora and fauna in its wake.

Okchuchay's 43-km stretch, corresponding with its Armenian section, passes through two mining districts, namely those egregious enterprises operated by the Zangazur Copper-Molybdenum Combine and Kapan Polymetal, whereas the remaining 40 km of the river flows through Azerbaijan. Okhchuchay is now a source of toxicity, with the concentration of heavy metals being six or seven times higher than what is considered to be a permissible scale. Systematically polluted by Armenia’s mining industry, the river can no longer be used for irrigation and as a source of drinking water.

As of 2019, most of the shares within the Copper-Molybdenum Combine belonged to the German-based “Croniment Mining AG”, which has shown no indication of curbing its mercantile urges in the face of the looming environmental disaster. On a practical level, the government of Armenia has taken no publicly recorded measures to ensure the installation of water treatment facilities in contravention of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and showed no signs of what may be regarded as a belated quizzical regret.

What could we infer from all of these? When the government of Armenia bridles at Azerbaijan’s ecological demands over the illicit use of Karabakh’s resources, claiming innocence and pleading ignorance, it happens to be in denial of its shameful environmental record, with consequences for Azerbaijan, which Vardanyan and Co have tried to replicate within the zone of the temporary control of the Russian ´peacekeeping’  contingent.

During the nearly 30 years of the region’s illegal occupation, there was enormous scope to perpetuate various pernicious mercantile schemes of plunder, with critical implications in terms of environmental equilibrium. Now, after the war of 2020, this scope is considerably narrowed. And what we can view as the presently discernable import of the ongoing eco-protest is that the watchfully beady eyes of the demonstrators, intently fixed on the movement along the Lachin Road, have frustrated the separatist profiteers, rendering their ill-fated venture as dysfunctional.

As Neil Watson, British Journalist, reflected: “The Armenian approach in liberated Karabakh is reminiscent of the Soviet attitude to the environment, where pollution was encouraged on a massive scale. Furthermore, it also represents a form of ‘scorched earth’ policy. Armenians know their days are numbered and they are hellbent on ruining the environment before they inevitably leave.”