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Government's Green Or Who Wants A Share Of Amulsar

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  • Government's Green Or Who Wants A Share Of Amulsar

    GOVERNMENT'S GREEN OR WHO WANTS A SHARE OF AMULSAR

    The U.K. Ambassador to Armenia Katherine Leach met on June 25 with the
    minister of environmental protection Aram Harutiunyan. The ambassador
    asked the minister to support the company which is investing in
    Amulsar gold mine. As is known, the license to exploit the mine is
    to be given to the British Lydian International headed by the former
    prime minister of Armenia, chairman of Yerevan, My Love Foundation
    Armen Sargsyan. By the way, on his invitation Prince Charles visited
    Armenia on May 28 to attend the celebration of the First Republic Day.

    The permit of exploitation is not with Lydian yet. The company does
    not have the right to exploit the mine yet, and the ambassador has
    most probably turned to the minister asking to resolve this issue.

    Environmentalists protest against exploitation of this mine. They held
    protest actions during Prince Charles~R visit. As a result, he had to
    enter Matenadaran through the back entrance to avoid an encounter with
    the demonstrators. The Prince~Rs relation to the mines is unknown. We
    only know that the Prince and Armen Sargsyan are friends.

    It is hard to tell whether the protests of environmentalists helped
    to delay a final decision on the issue. It is also hard to tell if
    Armen Sargsyan had organized the visit of the Prince to please the
    authorities and for a ~Sreward~T. But even if the aim of the visit
    was this, it seems to have failed. Otherwise the British ambassador
    would not have met with the minister of environmental protection
    asking for his help.

    By the way, the minister~Rs answer was very interesting. He said that
    Armenia is guided by green economy policy so the Amulsar project
    should be perfect. Tens of thousands of trees cut in Teghut forest
    for opening mines or the concentration of heavy metals in the air
    in Alaverdi exceeding the limit beyond which it is danger for human
    health is evidence to how strictly Armenia follows a green policy.

    Here the issue is not environmental protection or green economy.
    Environmentalists were protesting actively against the mineral industry
    in Teghut but it did not stop an alliance between the authorities
    and investors. So why are they so ~Sgreen~T in Amulsar?

    Maybe green is used in a figurative sense. Apparently, some influential
    person wants to be a formal or informal shareholder of the Amulsar
    project expecting their share from the British company, so the
    issuance of license is taking so long. The authorities are indirect
    supporters of the environmentalists until they come to terms with
    the British company.

    The government must have requested a very high price from the British
    to turn a blind eye on the protests of environmentalists. Even Prince
    Charles saw how determined they are and how difficult it will be for
    the government to ignore their protests.

    James Hakobyan 11:06 26/06/2013
    Story from Lragir.am News:
    http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/comments/view/30280


    From: Baghdasarian
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