Azatutyun.am. Representatives of a U.S.-Armenian joint venture said on Tuesday that it will continue to build a metallurgical plant in an Armenian border village despite systematic gunfire from nearby Azerbaijani army positions.
The construction site in Yeraskh, a village 55 kilometers south of Yerevan, has come under cross-border fire on a virtually daily basis for the past week amid heightened tensions at various sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Two Indian nationals working there were seriously wounded on June 14.
The U.S. State Department expressed serious concern over the “gunfire from the direction of Azerbaijan” targeting the “U.S.-affiliated company.” And several dozen foreign diplomats, including the Yerevan-based ambassadors of France, Germany and China, made a point of visiting Yeraskh on June 15. Nevertheless, Azerbaijani troops stationed less than one kilometer from the under-construction plant continued to shoot at it in the following days, according to local residents.
In a show of defiance, the joint venture set up by an Armenian investor and GTB Steel, a company registered in Sri Lanka and reportedly owned by a U.S. citizen, hoisted Armenian and U.S. flags at the construction site on Tuesday. Its chief executive, Tiran Hakobian, said it is thus making clear that “we will not go anywhere from here and will continue the plant’s construction.”
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“We will carry on with the works regardless of whether or not they will shoot at us,” Hakobian told reporters. “At some point, they [the Azerbaijanis] will understand that we will not leave and will not play by those rules of the game.”
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Azerbaijani forces again opened fire at the Yeraskh site late in afternoon, hours after the flag hoisting ceremony. Baku denied that.
The investors have pledged to invest $70 million in the project and create as many as 1,000 jobs in the rural community.
The Azerbaijani government protested against the project one week before the outbreak of the daily gunfire. It claimed that building the industrial facility without its permission is a violation of international environmental norms.
Yerevan brushed aside that claim. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said last week that Baku’s “false concerns” are a smokescreen for impeding economic growth and foreign investment in Armenia.
Armenia’s largest gold mine also located on the border with Azerbaijan was likewise targeted by systematic Azerbaijani gunfire this spring. The Russian owner of the Sotk gold mine announced earlier this month that it has no choice but to end open-pit mining operations there and put many of its 700 workers on unpaid leave.