Ministry: Azerbaijan's monitoring, in its areas where Russian peacekeepers are deployed, prevented

The primary monitoring of Azerbaijan, in its territories where Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed, regarding the illegal exploitation of mineral deposits and its consequences, did not take place due to another provocation, the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry spokesperson Masim Mammadov said, Report informs.

“We saw a group of aggressive youth at the site. They prevented our passage to the deposits. We consider this a pre-planned provocation. Vitaly Balasanyan and a representative of the unrecognized regime, Ruben Vardanyan, who arrived there, are behind this provocation.

Despite the promise to organize our trip, given as a result of past discussions, the Russian peacekeeping forces did not create conditions for us to do our job,” Mammadov said.

The ministry spokesperson noted that a large crowd had also gathered at the entrance of the second site, where the Azerbaijani specialists went.

“We saw that, in addition to the facilities, they also blocked the road. Despite the talks held with them by representatives, leadership, command of the Russian peacekeeping forces, no results were achieved. We consider this a provocation organized by the two sides,” he said.

As a result of the discussions held on December 3 and 7, 2022, with the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, Azerbaijani specialists from the Ministries of Economy, Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Service for Property Issues under the Ministry of Economy and AzerGold CJSC were to conduct primary monitoring on illegal exploitation of mineral deposits in the territory of Azerbaijan.