Hearings on the facts presented by three Armenian public organizations against exploitation of the Teghut mine will start on May 18 in Geneva, the capital of Switzerland, at the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention.

On March 16 Hayk Aloumyan, the lawyer of the case, and representatives of Ekodar and Transparency International left for Geneva.

We should remind that in July last year, the NGOs applied to the court with 65-page application demanding to annul a number of agreements. According to agreements, possessed by the Armenian copper program company, the company has a right to cut trees on 357 ha of the Teghut forest. Another 274 ha covered by factories, farms etc.  About 200 ha of forest will be destroyed. The rivers' flows will be changed.

Lawyer Hayk Aloumyan says that "the state cannot allow an activity which is not beneficial. The damage to the environment should be evaluated reasonably and compared to the interest. Nevertheless, now an activity, which causes an enormous damage is allowed. They justify the activity as opportunity to create thousand jobs, but they do not consider the damages to the environment, which will have direct impact on our population."

According to the lawyer, "because of the manipulation made in the law", the waste products were not considered as a matter for calculation and compensation for damages. 

"We have serious scientists, who raised their opinion that Teghut cannot be exploited this way.  Our state cannot consider interests of one company paying no attention to issues of vital importance to its population," says the lawyer.

Rouzan Avoyan