Armenia uses water resources as means of environmental terror in occupied territories
By Akbar Mammadov
Armenia uses water resources in occupied territories as a means of environmental terror against the Azerbaijani population living near the frontline, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Azerbaijani Community has said in a letter sent to the Council of Europe.
The community urged the Council of Europe to closely monitor the situation and help put an end to Armenia’s ecological terror, which leads to humanitarian and environmental disaster in the entire region.
The community reminded that Armenia is deliberately blocking the rivers flowing from the Armenian-occupied upper Karabakh region with artificial dams. Yerevan is also constructing illegal canals in the direction of Karabakh below the Sarsang reservoir which is under Armenian occupation.
It was also emphasized that using water resources as a means of pressure, Armenia has made it virtually impossible for the people living in the lower reaches of the rivers to engage in farming.
Thus, in winter months, especially, the Sarsang dam is opened, and suitable lands are exposed to erosion by artificial floods. In the summer months, when there is a great need for domestic water, Armenia creates an artificial drought by blocking the water, thus inflicting a serious blow on agriculture, as well as flora and fauna, the community said.
The community recalled the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of 2016 that Azerbaijani population in the frontline areas is deliberately deprived of water, as well as the final decision of the European Court of Human Rights about "Chiragovs and others against Armenia" in 2015 that exposed Armenia’s occupation policy.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97
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