Tase: Int’l community should support Azerbaijani environmental activists

The recent protests led by representatives of Azerbaijan’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) near Shusha, is historic, these brave citizens of Azerbaijan are protesting peacefully for the defense of the environment and for a cleaner and better treatment of freshwater resources, US political scientist and expert in international relations Peter Tase told Report.

“Azerbaijan and its people have invested an incredible amount of resources in defense of environmental causes and spoken candidly and shown determination in defense of the Caspian Sea, while the international community purposefully maintains silence and refuses to recognize the immense role and admirable efforts that were undertaken by the government of President Ilham Aliyev during the last twenty years in this critical field,” he noted.

“Russian peacekeeping troops in the region are equally useless as the OSCE Minsk Group. The Mission of Russian peacekeepers inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan was jeopardized immediately after Armenian forces began to install antipersonnel mines within the perimeter of Lachin Corridor, or better described; conducting subversive activities under the nose of Russian troops.”

He expressed regret that foreign countries, as well as the Russian peacekeeping contingent, are hushing up existing problems by not speaking out in defense of environmental issues that are on the UN sustainable development agenda.

There is an urgent need for the United Nations, US government and European Union to raise their voice and pressure Armenia to stop polluting the environment and heavily contaminating the water resources, he noted.

Silence is not a solution, he added.