Armenia's crazy plan to block river flowing to Azerbaijan
Rashid Shirinov
Armenia has anew surprised with its crazy calls to change the direction of transboundary rivers so that not to allow water to flow the enemy country - Azerbaijan.
Armenia, which keeps under control over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory for over 20 years as a result of bloody broken out in 1990s, stages ecological terror against its neighbor in an unneighborly way.
Armenian officials recently attempted to realize a project and direct the water from the Azat River in the Garni town to the territory of the Ararat region, where lands belonging to Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan are located.
Residents of the Garni town managed to defend their river after a long and painstaking fight against the authorities. The project was suspended, and now the authorities should decide what to do with the World Bank’s loan of 10 million, allocated for this project and probably which has been wasted already.
But the inappropriate use of loan is not something new for Armenia, as the country is already in mire of “corruption” and “nation-wide thievery”. The surprising fact is that now authorities accuse the residents of Garni of unpatriotic behavior and even betrayal… as it turns out that the aim was not to irrigate lands of the prime minister, but to deprive Azerbaijan of water.
“Instead of flowing into Nakhchivan, the Azat river could irrigate the Ararat valley,” said Rubik Abrahamyan, Governor of Ararat, Tert.am reports.
"Of course, I wish the project was implemented. Currently, we release 15,000-25,000 cubic meters of water out of the Azat reservoir, which, through Azat river, flows to Nakhchivan. The reservoir contains 70 million cubic meters of water with a useful part of 60 million cubic meters,” the governor said, voicing regret that the water is wasted mentioning "that flows to Azerbaijan".
Aramayis Grigoryan, the minister for nature protection, also stated that Armenia vainly allows the water of the Azat river to flow in Azerbaijan
That is, the inhabitants of Garni were accused of “pouring water into the enemy's watermill” while they were trying to rescue their lands and ecology.
The residents of Garni believe that through the project the authorities were trying to solve the problem of irrigation of their private lands. The scenario maybe repeated in case of the Gegard lake, waters of which, through the construction of artificial irrigation systems, are expected to be supplied to neighboring communities which belong to Ishkhan Zakaryan, head of Control Chamber of Armenia. That is, the Armenian officials are ready to do anything in pursuit of their interests. And it is best to do, by summing their intentions into allegedly patriotic purposes.
Obviously, the authorities has been thinking about personal benefits, not forgetting to take advantage of its geographical position to harm Azerbaijan. The fact is that Armenia and the occupied Azerbaijani territories are above sea level in relation to the adjacent Azerbaijani lands. So, many rivers flowing through Azerbaijan, originate in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan or Armenia. So on the other hands, Armenian officials are trying to turning Caucasian rivers backwards.
However, Armenian should not forget that cross-border rivers are not water resources of any state, they are resources of all the countries through which they flow. To assign them, and especially make the subject of bargaining and blackmail, is an international crime.
Rivers are flowing from Armenia to Azerbaijan not by the grace of Yerevan, but by the laws of nature. And these laws are fair, unlike the laws, which Armenian policy is lead.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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