Marine Martirosyan, 168 Hours
... It’s not known why two years ago the Armenian Government remembered that uranium reserves located far from Yerevan but near Lernadzor Village are derelict, so to say. On 6 February 2008 the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA and Russian State “Rosatom” Corporation signed a memorandum and in accordance with this memorandum both departments must conduct cooperation in the sphere of uranium exploration, extraction and processing.
… “Many are stakeholders in this sphere. Uranium is said to pose no danger have no negative impact on environment, if to use new technologies. This does not comply with reality for one simple reason: everybody speaking is a stakeholder,” said Armen Parsadanyan, the Head of “Fund for Kapan Development” NGO.
What is more interesting is that neither the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources (by the way, born in Kapan) nor the Minister of Nature Protection of RA see any danger in uranium development. Moreover, several weeks ago the Minister of Nature Protection with great solemnity awarded a medal to the Director of Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine Maksim Petrosyan for allegedly keeping environment clean.
The local authorities are also obliged to implement the government decision. “Everybody is afraid of losing its post. Who will dare to utter anything against…Our Head of Village Administration was also suppressed when he wanted to defend his villagers’ interests,” say Lernadzor residents. They asked to pass the Armenian authorities the following: “Let everybody who says uranium is not harmful exchange our houses, our Regional Head, Ministers, Prime Minister etc… Go and write this…”
June 03, 2010