The Max Group-Armenian businessmen from theUnited Statesand Lebanon-does business in the territories liberated by Nagorno Karabakh. In Soviet times, an excellent irrigation network was built in the area, supplying every village with water for their crops. The pipelines’ routes, diameters, and other details were accurately marked on Soviet military maps. Today, General Levon Yeranosyan, the commander of one of our military units, is using these maps to dig up the pipes and send them off various directions. We have discovered that some of the pipes turn up on the Armenian market, and the rest goes toIran. At the moment, they’re working on pipes with a diameter of 800 millimeters. Naturally, Army equipment and military personnel are being used for the job.

We’ve been informed that the Max Group asked President Arkady Ghukasyan and Prime Minister Anushavan Danielyan of Nagorno Karabakh to stop the general. But their response was, more or less, that there was nothing they could do to stop the general. Within the Karabakh government, Serge Amirkhanyan is the man responsible for the territories in question, taking care of resettlement issues as well. But he hasn’t been able to do anything about the pipes, either. It’s ridiculous that on the one hand, the Karabakh government invests huge amounts of money to settle the villages in those territories, and on the other hand, one of the most important preconditions for doing so- the irrigation system - is being destroyed.