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Rena Murshud

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At the meeting dedicated to the socio-economic results of the 6 months of 2023 President Ilham Aliyev spoke on the incident that has happened in the Soyudlu village of Gadabay. The head of state did not overlook this problem, as he touched on many other issues, and said that the mistakes made against the background of the events are unacceptable.

"The incident in the Gadabay district is completely unacceptable. I believe that the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources was negligent as a minimum, it showed lack of control, acted as a passive observer, as a result of which a foreign investor contaminated our nature."

It should be noted that a few weeks ago in the village of Soyudlu of Gadabay, the local population held an unauthorized protest against the claim of the construction of the 2nd artificial lake by the Anglo-American company. The legal demand of the police was ignored by the protestors and the demonstration was broken up by the police, resulting in clashes between the police and the residents.

The president did not welcome the fact that a part of the residents committed illegal acts following the provocateurs' plot. As the head of state himself noted, "chaos, arbitrariness and provocations in Azerbaijan ended in 1993".

In general, those who want to smear the Azerbaijani police should be shown examples of the brutal behavior of police officers of other countries, especially developed Western and European countries.

Regarding the events, political scientist Amid Aliyev said in a comment for Azernews that both external and internal forces are behind the events.

"Let me note that the views expressed by President Ilham Aliyev the other day are the results of the successes achieved by Azerbaijan in the last 6 months. In addition, the President also touched on the Gadabay events, which have had a greater resonance in the social and political life of Azerbaijan in recent days. First of all, he expressed his remarks to a number of state institutions regarding the increase in citizen dissatisfaction and the lack of a timely response to it. In particular, the negligence of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and the Gadabay Executive Authority was emphasized more," A. Aliyev said.

Speaking about environmental damage, the political scientist noted that during the development of gold deposits by a foreign company in Gadabay, the fact of environmental damage and discharge of toxic substances was left out of control for a long time, which resulted in the mass dissatisfaction of citizens.

"In addition to the local executive and administrative bodies, forces living abroad and inside the country also had an influence on the action that took place. Some foreign factors, who could not accept Azerbaijan's triumphant position, growing influence and state of being regional power center, intended to manage this action in accordance with their interests. In addition, foreign-funded and foreign-controlled individuals and groups within the country were also interested in making this event even bigger and publicized," the political scientist noted.

According to A. Aliyev, although the Azerbaijani police and the people were confronted, all attempts aimed at creating an environment of mistrust between citizens and the Azerbaijani police were prevented.

"Let me first note that the state of Azerbaijan has already solved the problem by sending such oldfashined actions to the archives of the 90s. Actions such as chaos, anarchy, public disobedience and disrespect for government officials have since long lost their power. It seems that the attempt of the interest groups, who could not calculate this fact, was wasted precisely because of this," he said.

In addition, the expert explained the condition that the head of state should be provided with thorough information about the incident, supported by the opinion of international experts, within a week by the relevant institutions, and approached the issue as follows:

"Each foreign legal entity, in addition to investing in Azerbaijan, engages in production, it will first of all obey the laws of Azerbaijan and protect the rights of citizens. This is one of the main conditions and requirements."

Concluding his comment, Amid Aliyev stressed that there are relevant state bodies that have achieved success in the field of investment, and noted that their experience can serve as an example to local and foreign companies that make mistakes in this field.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

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