Opponents of Amulsar gold mining restart protest

Local residents protesting against gold mining have demanded from Armenian authorities to revise the impact of the mine on the environment; about 200 activists gathered in the outskirts of Mount Amulsar, protesters have informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that after local residents' protests against gold mining at the Amulsar deposit, law enforcers detained 14 people. The situation aggravated after at night on August 4, the "Lydian Armenia" Company replaced the trailers in which protesters were on duty near Mount Amulsar with their own ones.

Protesters put forward a demand to the company to move its trailers 30 meters deep into its territory. On August 5, activists addressed their respective appeal to the authorities, Shirak Buniatyan, one of protesters, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Activists also appealed to the authorities with a demand to invalidate the assessment of the impact of the Amulsar project on the environment and make a new assessment.

At the foot of the Mount, from where activists' trailers were removed, about 200 opponents of gold mining gathered, Gegam Oganyan, another activist, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The protesters blocked the local road for some time, but the police demanded to remove the blockage. Activists, in turn, threatened to go on with their protests, Mr Oganyan has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 5, 2020 at 08:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.