EcoLur
According to the Aarhus Center in Hrazdan, teachers at school № 13 in Hrazdan Town collected their signatures to express their consent for resettlement. Aarhus Center volunteers quizzed people having put their signatures and found out that people clearly don’t understand what they were signing under. They only this is connected with the construction of an ore processing factory in this region and development of Hrazdan iron mine. They say they were promised new apartments instead of old ones.
It should be noted in 2009 the local population headed by the Aarhus Center in Hrazdan voiced their disagreement with the development of Hrazdan Mine and factory construction. An independent expert assessment of “Nagin” company project was arranged, while later 200 signatures ‘against’ were collected. As a result, “Environmental Impact Expert Assessment” SNCO of Nature Protection Ministry of Armenia didn’t issue it positive opinion because of delay in documentation submission by the company. That is the project was frozen.
At present “Nagin” company’s shares are purchased by “Fortune Oil” Chinese Company. According to law, the company must submit a new project for environmental impact expert assessment and hold new public hearings. A signature collection is also not excluded.
March 15, 2011