"Regrettably, the development of the mining industry in Azerbaijan has not progressed to the required level due to both objective and subjective reasons. The objective reasons stem from the fact that many of our deposits discovered during the Soviet era were located in the occupied regions, and the Armenian state continued its policy of aggression, including the plundering of the natural resources belonging to the Azerbaijani people and state," said President Ilham Aliyev during a meeting dedicated to the State Program on the development of the mining and metallurgical industry, APA reports.
"Suffice it to say that during the period of occupation, 60,000 hectares of forest reserves in the Kalbajar, Lachin, and Zangilan districts were destroyed, plundered, cut down, sold, and subsequently burned by the Armenian state following the Second Garabagh War—during the time when Armenian armed forces were required to evacuate the Kalbajar and Lachin districts, where they were given a grace period of 2–3 weeks. Everyone remembers well that they were destroying trees while not forgetting sanitary fixtures either. Apparently, there were two things most valuable to them: first, completely destroying Azerbaijani nature, and second, taking the most valuable sanitary appliances with them. That is likely the main memento of the occupation period for them," the head of state emphasized.
According to President Ilham Aliyev, natural resources—our gold, copper, and molybdenum deposits—were being plundered: "Naturally, during the occupation, the Armenian state engaged solely in looting. During the Soviet period, a certain amount of exploration work was conducted. However, for the Soviet government at the time, this region—and Azerbaijan in particular—was not considered a priority in this field; the oil industry was deemed the priority. Therefore, many of our deposits—that is, our promising deposits—are still awaiting their geological exploration phase today. This, of course, has a positive aspect, as these reserves remain underground today. We will apply very specific mechanisms in the State Program to address these issues. First and foremost is the rapid commissioning of operational deposits in the liberated territories. These are primarily the gold, copper, and molybdenum deposits located in the Kalbajar, Aghdara, and Zangilan districts. Work has already commenced in the Aghdara district. I hope that in the near future, work will also start in both Kalbajar and Zangilan, thereby initiating exploitation at the existing—that is, discovered—deposits."
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