Wednesday,
UN Court Rules Against Karabakh Road Blockade
• Anush Mkrtchian
NETHERLANDS - General view of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The
Hague, January 23, 2020.
The United Nations’ top court on Wednesday ordered Azerbaijan to restore
“unimpeded” traffic through the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Armenia asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take this and other
“provisional measures” two weeks after Azerbaijani government-backed protesters
blocked the road on December 12. Lawyers representing Azerbaijan’s government
denied the closure of the Lachin corridor during court hearings in January.
The ICJ concluded that “connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia via the
Lachin Corridor has been disrupted.”
“The information available to the Court indicates that the disruption on the
Lachin Corridor has impeded the transfer of persons of Armenian national or
ethnic origin hospitalized in Nagorno-Karabakh to medical facilities in Armenia
for urgent medical care,” it said. “The evidence also indicates that there have
been hindrances to the importation into Nagorno-Karabakh of essential goods,
causing shortages of food, medicine and other life-saving medical supplies.”
The court based in The Hague pointed out that a Russian-brokered agreement that
stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh commits Azerbaijan to guaranteeing safe
passage through the region’s sole land link with the outside world. It said Baku
should therefore “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement
of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”
At the same time, the panel of 15 ICJ judges rejected Armenia’s request for a
separate injunction against the disruption of Armenian electricity and gas
supplies to Karabakh carried out through Azerbaijani territory.
“The Court considers that Armenia has not placed before it sufficient evidence
that Azerbaijan is disrupting the supply of natural gas and other utilities to
the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh,” it said.
The ICJ also threw out Azerbaijan’s request to make Armenia stop laying land
mines in the Lachin corridor. Yerevan has repeatedly denied the Azerbaijani
allegations, saying that they are a pretext for blocking the vital road.
The two warring nations have sought injunctions against each other as part of
their mutual lawsuits brought before the UN court in 2021. The legal dispute
could take years to resolve. Also, analysts believe that the ICJ judges have no
real means of enforcing their interim orders.
Yeghishe Kirakosian, a lawyer representing the Armenian government in
international tribunals, said Yerevan will keep ICJ posted about Baku’s
compliance with its latest order.
Armenia Revives Major Gold Mining Project
Armenia - Gold mining facilities constructed by Lydian International company at
Amulsar deposit, 18 May 2018.
The Armenian government and a Canadian-based company formally agreed on
Wednesday to restart a multimillion-dollar gold mining project in Armenia that
was disrupted by protesters shortly after the 2018 “velvet revolution.”
The country’s former government had granted the company, now called Lydian
Canada Ventures, a license to develop a massive gold deposit at Amulsar in 2016.
Lydian planned to start mining operations there in late 2018 and produce 210,000
ounces of gold, worth $385 million at current international prices, annually.
However, those plans were put on hold after several dozen environmental
protesters started blocking all roads leading to Amulsar in June 2018. They said
that the project would wreak havoc on the environment.
Lydian dismissed those claims, saying that it would use modern technology that
would prevent such damage.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made conflicting statements about the Amulsar
project. His administration did not revoke Lydian’s mining licenses. But it also
refrained from using force to end the blockade.
The company, which claimed to have invested $370 million in the project before
the blockade, filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada in late 2019 before
being restructured. It is now owned by two U.S. and Canadian equity firms
specializing in mining.
Armenia - Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian (center) shakes hands with
representatives of Lydian Canada Ventures and the Eurasian Development Bank,
.
Following the disastrous 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinian’s government
signaled plans to revive the Amulsar project and started negotiating with Lydian
for that purpose.
The talks resulted in the signing in Yerevan on Wednesday of a memorandum of
understanding by Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian, Lydian board member Jeffrey
Coach, and a senior executive of the Kazakhstan-based Eurasian Development Bank
(EDB).
Kerobian said at the signing ceremony that the three sides aim to raise $250
million for finishing the construction of mining and smelting facilities at
Amulsar and installing other equipment there. In particular, he said, Lydian
will borrow $100 million from the EDB and another $50 million from an unnamed
Armenian bank.
Kerobian also announced that the U.S. and Canadian investors have granted the
Armenian government a 12.5 percent stake in the project in return for its pledge
to manage their risks.
“This is a very important project for us,” Kerobian told reporters.
Armenia -- Protesters block a road leading to Amulsar mine, July 2, 2018
“It is estimated that operations at Amulsar will increase Armenia’s GDP by
approximately 1 percent … and we just cannot miss such an opportunity,” he said,
adding that Lydian will be paying between 30 and 40 billion drams ($75-$100
million) in various taxes each year.
“It’s an incredibly dynamic project for the economy of the country,” Coach said,
for his part. “It will employ hundreds of Armenians.”
He also said that Amulsar will be “one of the most sophisticated operating mines
in the world.”
“We will have complied with every environmental standard,” added the Lydian
executive.
Neither man gave any dates for the planned start of open-pit mining at Amulsar.
Nor did Kerobian clarify what the government will do if the mining site is again
blocked by protesters. He said only that that the government “will do
everything” to protect Lydian’s investments.
Mining has for decades been a key export-oriented sector of the Armenian
economy. The country’s largest mining enterprise, the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum
Combine (ZCMC), is also its leading corporate taxpayer.
Yerevan Opposes Azeri Checkpoint At Lachin Corridor
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan speaks during a news conference in
Yerevan, .
The Armenian government denounced on Wednesday Azerbaijan’s apparent attempts to
set up a permanent checkpoint on the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to
Armenia which was blocked by Baku more than two months ago.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev admitted such a desire after his weekend
talks in Munich with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian mediated by U.S.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Aliyev said he suggested during the
trilateral meeting that checkpoints be set up on that road as well as a would-be
corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave.
“The idea of setting up checkpoints on Armenia’s border and at the starting
point of the Lachin corridor was really floated [at Munich],” said Foreign
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. “But our response was explicit.”
“Our position was expressed shortly after the blockage of the Lachin corridor
and it remains the same: regulations for the Lachin corridor were already
negotiated and signed, including by the president of Azerbaijan … And
renegotiating them under the threat of another use of force is unacceptable to
us,” he told a joint news conference with Luxembourg’s visiting Foreign Minister
Jean Asselborn.
Russian military vehicles roll along a road towards Nagorno-Karabakh, November
13, 2020.
Mirzoyan referred to the Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in
Karabakh. The agreement placed the Lachin corridor under the control of Russian
peacekeeping forces and committed Azerbaijan to guaranteeing safe passage
through it.
Yerevan maintains that the continuing Azerbaijani blockade is a gross violation
of this arrangement. Russia, the United States and the European Union have cited
it in their repeated statements urging Baku to unblock Karabakh’s land link with
Armenia and the outside world.
Speaking in Munich, Aliyev again defended Azerbaijani government-backed
protesters blocking the Lachin corridor on ostensibly environmental grounds.
Mirzoyan said that in return for reopening the vital Karabakh road Baku hopes to
force the Armenian side to agree to an extraterritorial corridor to Nakhichevan
that would pass through Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province. He ruled out
such a concession while reaffirming Yerevan’s readiness for conventional
Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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