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Sabina Mammadli

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For four days in a row now, since December 12, Azerbaijani eco-activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been protesting near Shusha against the failure of the Russian peacekeepers in the region to provide unimpeded access of Azerbaijani experts to monitor the illicit exploitation of the country's mineral resources.

The pickets on the Khankandi-Shusha section of the road are urging the Russian peacekeepers to prevent the separatists and their foreign patrons from brazenly plundering Azerbaijani mineral resources. The current situation in the area is a direct result of the Azerbaijani public dissatisfaction with illegal economic activities, theft of natural resources, and environmental damage to the territory of Azerbaijan.

What has led to the current state of events is growing public discontent over a plethora of issues, such as the misuse of the Lachin road; the shady business ties of Ruben Vardanyan, the so-called “first minister” of the regional separatists with Maj-Gen Volkov, the commander of the Russian contingent.

More specifically, following discussions with the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent on December 3 and 7, 2022, Azerbaijani specialists from the Ministries of Economy, Ecology, and Natural Resources, the State Service for Property Issues under the Ministry of Economy, and AzerGold Company were to conduct primary monitoring on illegal exploitation of mineral deposits on Azerbaijani territory. However, the monitoring failed due to the provocation of local Armenians.

In an exclusive interview with Azernews, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza spoke about the current protests near Shusha, as well as the role of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

First of all, in principle, of course, Azerbaijani ecological experts and any other citizens of Azerbaijan should be free to visit any of the territories of Azerbaijan they wish.

Unfortunately, as we know, throughout the years of conflict and occupation, this has not been practically possible under many circumstances, especially for security reasons. I don’t know the exact location of the mining sites and natural resources sites that the Azerbaijani NGOs wish to visit. But I could understand that peacekeepers, including the Russian ones, whose mission is after all to keep the peace, may think it is premature at this point for that sort of a visit because it might inflame emotions and lead to a breakdown of the peace. But having said that, as I said, of course, from a legal perspective, those Azerbaijani NGOs have every right to visit those parts of Azerbaijani territory. It is just a question of practicality, I suppose, with the peacekeepers thinking they need to avoid the peace breaking down.

In a long run, it is not a good situation to have Russian peacekeepers on the ground in Azerbaijan. However, to this point, they’ve played a relatively constructive role, much more constructive than the role they have played in Georgia and Moldova where they have made conflicts worse rather than keeping the peace.

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Sabina Mammadli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SabinaMmdl

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