The conclusion of the State Commission expected by the public and the President…

The Commission created on June 21 by the order of Prime Minister Ali Asadov to monitor and assess the current situation in connection with waste in the village of Seyudlu of Gedabey region is headed by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev. The commission consists of the Deputy Ministers of Health, the Minister of Emergency Situations, the Minister of Agriculture, the Head of the Department of Industry and Energy of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Head of the State Service for Property Issues under the Ministry of Economy, and the Head of the Executive Branch of the Gedabey region.

So far, the conclusion of the State Commission that conducted the investigation in Seyudlu has not been submitted, although more than 20 days have passed. Even President Ilham Aliyev, speaking on July 11 at an expanded meeting of the government on the socio-economic results of the first half of 2023, criticized the absence of an expert opinion.I said, go there, talk to people on the spot, take air and soil samples, involve international experts. Since the Ministry itself was the cause of this incident, perhaps it will try to hush up this matter. Therefore, let the experts give estimates: to what extent does the exploitation of these deposits harm people's health, nature or does it not harm? Still no answer. Yes, a meeting was held in the Cabinet of Ministers, a statement was made there. Anyone who reads this statement will not understand anything of what it says; what was the purpose of this statement?" the President said, adding, "I gave a specific instruction, a specific one. Where are the results of the examination? How long has it been? It has been about a month. No one reports to me. Neither the Cabinet of Ministers, nor the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. They think I forgot about it. No, I don't forget anything."

The coordinator of the Coalition of Public Associations for Increasing Transparency in the Mining Industry, Ilham Huseynli, shared his view on the situation in Seyudlu with ASTNA.

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Question: Why has the conclusion of the State Commission on the results of the investigation conducted in Seyudlu not been made public?

Answer: As you know, on June 21, 2023, by order of the Prime Minister, a commission was established to monitor and assess the current situation at the landfill site in the village of Soyudlu of the Gedabey region, whose leadership was entrusted to the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev. From the very beginning, I would like to note that the absence of public representatives in the commission, in particular, independent civil society, is regrettable. The commission was assigned 2 main tasks:

• Provision of monitoring and assessment of the current situation at the landfill located in the village of Seyudlu Gedabey region;
• Ensuring consideration of citizens' appeals concerning the health of residents and environmental protection.

Of course, as a result, it was instructed to prepare relevant proposals in accordance with the results of this monitoring and evaluation and submit them to the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

I believe that the implementation of the tasks should not take so much time. To fulfill the first task assigned to the commission, it is necessary to conduct chemical analyses of water, air, and soil, which are considered necessary, conduct special examinations, and evaluate the results. It seems to me that with the availability of modern laboratory equipment and reagents, a maximum of one week, or maybe less, is enough to obtain the necessary results. The second task assigned to the commission may take a little longer for most representatives of the local community to be able to undergo thorough medical examinations. This may include serious radiological examinations and some time-consuming blood tests. But, as it turned out, 20 days have already passed since the issuance of the order, and this time is more than enough for the initial conclusion to be fully prepared and presented to the public. But, unfortunately, the active part of society heard information about some moments of pre-trial detention only from a well-known interview with the chairman of the commission, the head of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev with “Real TV.” Frankly speaking, it is difficult for me to give an exhaustive answer to your question. For what reasons the preliminary results have not been made public in full, it is not clear to me either.

Question: How was the research really supposed to be conducted? And in how many days would it be possible to submit a conclusion?

Answer: To tell the truth, the order adopted in this regard also does not specify a specific deadline. Usually, in this type of orders, the deadlines for the completion of work and the publication of the results are stipulated. In my opinion, despite the severity of the tasks assigned to the Commission, the deadline for the publication of preliminary results has long passed. In general, monitoring is also an observation, and, as a rule, the duration of each observation should also be reflected in the program and methodological issues of each observation.

Question: It is noteworthy that those who protest against air and water pollution by the gold mine in Karabakh, which is being developed by Armenians, are silent about the environmental situation in Seyudlu. Or those who are trying to raise the world community with protests against the opening of a metallurgical plant in Aradeyan in Armenia ignore the environmental situation in Soyudlu. How sincere is this? What does all this mean?

Answer: This is an interesting and somewhat disturbing question. Of course, any action against the illegal activities of Armenians in the mines located in our territories controlled by Russian "peacekeepers" is fair and should be supported. But why only in these mines?! And does the public know about what is happening at other mines, for example, at the Vainali gold mines liberated from occupation or another Seyudlu (Zod) located in Kelbajar? Including about the deposits in Seyudlu, which we are talking about, about what is happening here?!

So far, our repeated appeals as a Coalition of Public Associations for Increasing Transparency in the Mining Industry in order to go to the mining regions, especially to the deposits located in the territories liberated from occupation, to monitor, and then prepare a report and submit it to the public, including the world, have remained unanswered. If we had conducted such monitoring in a timely manner, then at a later stage the world would also consider the actions of "eco-activists" fair and logical and could not use these actions against our country.

This fact alone indicates that most of those who took part in it, aggressively protesting against the "peacekeepers", are not sincere and independent. Of course, this fact indicates that the civil society of Azerbaijan is in a difficult situation. The expression "civil society" is usually perceived in parallel, understood and accepted as independence, freedom of thought, an alternative position. However, today in our country the arena for the activities of civil society institutions has greatly narrowed, the possibilities of practical activity are minimized, and they are under the control of a strong government.

But I believe that the government should finally seriously assess the trends going on in the world and create all conditions in the country for the functioning of civil society, in particular, independent civil society institutions. The first step in this direction would be the lifting of the ban on the activities of foreign donors in the country established at the legislative level and ensuring access of civil society institutions to alternative financial resources. A strong civil society is one of the main attributes of a strong state.

Question: Why don't they create conditions for independent organizations to conduct individual studies?

Answer: In fact, there is no answer corresponding to strict logic to this question. In other words, the government should create opportunities and conditions for independent representatives of civil society to travel and conduct monitoring there and discuss their results with the relevant state bodies, and then bring the results to the attention of the public.

Then the Government would know the real situation there and could take the necessary measures in a timely manner to remedy the situation, which would lead to a timely and complete removal of the observed tension. It should also be noted that both the local and the international community, as a rule, take the reports of independent civil society institutions more seriously than Governments, and show more confidence in the former. In this sense, the cooperation of relevant State institutions and independent civil society institutions will have a significant impact on the image of the country and on the correct direction and timely resolution of the processes.

By the way, in our country there are good examples of cooperation between representatives of an independent society and companies, as well as with the state, although not directly. So, in 2004, with the joint participation and initiative of BP and the Soros Foundation, hundreds of representatives of independent NGOs took part in the BTC pipeline monitoring project and eventually made reports on the presented areas of activity. For example, at that time I was represented in a social group and visited all the communities throughout the pipeline, met and interviewed community members and, eventually, prepared and presented to the public a 50-60-page report as an appraiser of the group. In my opinion, this was quite a normal practice.

Question: In many countries, the use of cyanide in the mining industry is prohibited. But cyanide acid is used in Seyudlu and other mines of Azerbaijan. The state creates conditions for this. The British company does not use it at home, but in countries such as Azerbaijan it does it quietly. Why does Azerbaijan create conditions for this?

Answer: The exploitation of natural resources has been relevant at all times, and it is relevant today. At this time, both organic and antagonistic relations have historically developed between the economic, social, and labor interests of the state, companies and local communities, and the damage that the waste generated as a result of the production process can cause to the environment and human health. That is, the search for a golden mean between these two factors, which would satisfy everyone, has always generated serious problems, and what is happening in Seyudlu today is connected precisely with the answer to this question. That is, the government, the relevant state bodies should first of all protect the interests of members of the local community in this matter. This includes their social, economic, labor, including environmental interests.

As you know, the document "Directive on Waste management of the mining industry", adopted in the European Union in 2006, was developed as a result of an environmental disaster caused by a leak in 2000 of water with cyanide acid at the Romanian gold mine "Baia Mare". The collapse of the cyanide water retention dam led to 100,000 m3 of cyanide waste leaking into surrounding reservoirs, resulting in the disconnection of drinking water supply to almost 3 million people in Romania, Hungary and Serbia, and hundreds of tons of fish and other living creatures were destroyed in 3 interconnected rivers - the Szamos, the Tisza and the Danube. After this event, the European Parliament took the initiative in 2010 to ban the use of cyanide acid to separate gold from other substances in all gold mines. That is, after these events, many countries either banned the use of cyanide in mining, or minimized its use until it reached a completely safe limit for the environment.

I am very sorry that the Government and its relevant bodies, despite the fact that many years have passed, only after a wave of strong protests by local residents, paid attention to this issue. Despite the fact that 20 days have passed, the conclusion reached by the established commission has not been brought to the attention of the public.

Question: What can be done to correct the environmental situation in Seyudlu, to prevent the use of toxic substances by any foreign company in Azerbaijan and so that Azerbaijan does not create opportunities for this?

Answer: Thank you for this question. First of all, I would like to note that even the commission created after these events is not trustworthy. Because, as already mentioned, there is not a single representative of the public in this commission, especially a representative of an independent civil society. As a rule, the composition of the commissions created in such situations include persons enjoying the trust of society, including representatives of the community of the area where the event occurred.

In other words, answering the question, I want to state that the government should at least create conditions so that representatives of independent civil society, who are experts in various fields, can travel to this territory affected by the mining industry and conduct monitoring, and then bring the results to the attention of the public. I think that this may be a good and right undertaking, and in developed societies it is the same.

Depending on the results achieved, the Government may take the following steps. If the harm that these wastes can cause to the environment and the health of community members exceeds generally accepted norms (this probability is the most serious), then all work at this mine should be stopped immediately if it is possible to update technological processes, make their impacts safer through the introduction of more modern and advanced technologies, take into account employment and other economic interests of the local population, then it is possible to give consent to the continuation of the company's activities, otherwise the activities of this company in the region should be completely discontinued.

By the way, this company works not only in Gedabey, in Seyudlu. In all areas of the mining industry where they function as contractors, similar monitoring observations should also be conducted without delay.

In conclusion, I would also like to note that as a Coalition of Public Associations to Increase Transparency in the Mining Industry, we have sent a letter to the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev and informed that the experts of our coalition, together with other specialists whom we will involve, will be sent both to the Seyudlu mining district, where events are taking place, and to other mining areas, in particular, to Veyneli, Soyudlu (Zod), liberated from occupation. To realize our intentions, we need support and appropriate instructions. I believe that if such a trip and monitoring take place, our society and the state can benefit greatly from it.