The following statement has been issued by the Pan-Armenian Environmental Front (PAEF)

The Kentron District police of Yerevan recently called Levon Galstyan, member of the coordinating board of Pan-Armenian Environmental Front (PAEF), informing him that “Lydian Armenia”, the company that plans to operate the Amulsar mine, filed a complaint that he and his colleagues had threatened the company.

Now, the police are collecting material regarding this complaint. Levon Galstyan was “invited” to the police, but since there was no official notification, he refused to go.

As a reminder, “Lydian Armenia” company is 100 percent owned by “Lydian International Limited”, a British offshore company. Despite the negative opinion of most independent specialists and environmental organizations, and majority of the population of Jermuk and Gndevaz, Armenia’s government permitted the implementation of this disastrous project.

 The mine poses unmanageable risks not only for the Arpa and Vorotan river basin, the Jermuk health resort, Spandaryan and Kechut reservoirs, but also for Lake Sevan – the main regional repository of fresh water. The plan is to process 10 million tons of ore annually using the toxic substance cyanide – only 1000 meters from the Arpa River and Gndevaz village.

Within the scope of international and local laws, the PAEF, together with other concerned organizations, specialists and individual, has organized and continues organizing initiatives to express its opposition to this unsustainable project.

Here, you can get acquainted with experts’ opinions, analysis, articles and some of the videos regarding Amulsar gold mine.

We would urge civil society to be more active in this issue and for human rights organizations to be more alert in protecting everybody’s rights.

Pan-Armenian Environmental Front (PAEF) Civil Initiative