Amulsar defenders accuse authorities of silencing environmental threat

The authorities of Armenia ignore the situation with the Amulsar gold mine, despite massive protests, participants of a flash mob in Yerevan claim.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that residents of Jermuk have been protesting against the development of the Amulsar deposit since 2014. The protestors managed to block the entrance to Mount Amulsar, and despite the "Lydian Armenia" Company got a licence to develop the mine, it could not start any works there.

On August 18, in Yerevan, the defenders of Amulsar held a flash mob in a form of a walk with children in the parliamentary square. According to the police, about 60 people, not counting children, joined the flash mob.

The activists were walking with an inscription reading: "Save Amulsar", placed on their T-shirts, bags, and posters. Initially, the police did not want to let the participants of the flash mob into the square and claimed that the "Save Amulsar" call was "politically motivated." Journalists were also not allowed by the police to enter the square. The law enforcers explained the prohibition by the fact that the parliament and the adjacent territory were specially protected facilities, and the journalists did not have the appropriate accreditation. However, later, the police let the activists and the journalists into the square. Meanwhile, the law enforcers wrote down personal data of each journalist, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reported.

The authorities call the parliamentary square a public territory, but at the same time they create artificial obstacles to the defenders of Amulsar by preventing them from expressing their opinion, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been explained by Teimine Yenokyan, a participant of the protest action.

By not commenting on the situation around Amulsar, the authorities fenced themselves off from the problem, Teimine Yenokyan noted. "With such actions we are trying to get them to react to our demands, the main one of which is to withdraw the document with the environmental impact assessment, which officials gave the 'Lydian Armenia' Company. We will continue our protests until the authorities react to our demands," the activists emphasized.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 19, 2020 at 12:53 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.