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Azerbaijani President: 54,000 hectares of forest resources have been destroyed, which is yet another Armenian crime

08 January 2021 13:47 (UTC +04:00)

"In my opening remarks, I provided information on the felling of forests and said that the damage must be calculated. I want all the people of Azerbaijan to know that in 1988, the forest fund in the liberated areas was 228,000 hectares, and in 2020 it is only 174,000 hectares. So 54,000 hectares of forest resources have been destroyed, which is yet another Armenian crime. Therefore, this issue should be inspected very seriously. As I said, the damage must be calculated, and relevant agencies, first of all, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy, must develop a special program to restore the forests destroyed by Armenians," said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at meeting in a video format on the results of 2020, APA reports.

"The liberated lands also contained state nature reserves and sanctuaries. I want to inform the people of Azerbaijan about this. The Garagol State Nature Reserve in Lachin district was established in 1987. It covered an area of 240 hectares. It has been completely destroyed, looted and all trees in it have been cut down. The Basitchay State Nature Reserve in Zangilan district was established on the initiative of great leader Heydar Aliyev in 1974. It is a unique forest in Europe and there were rare plane trees there. The reserve covered 107 hectares, but now there are only 42 hectares left. This is another manifestation of Armenian savagery. This shows that they understood and knew that they were living in these lands temporarily. They destroyed our homes, our historical sites, our mosques, our forests. Only 42 hectares are left of the rare plane tree forest. A group must be sent there, conduct an inspection on the spot, and the reserve must be restored.

The Gubadli State Nature Reserve was established in 1969. Its area was 8,500 hectares in 1988 and now it covers 6,923 hectares. So 1,577 hectares have been destroyed and looted.

The Dashalti State Nature Reserve was established by Heydar Aliyev in 1981. In 1988, it had an area of 400 hectares, now it is 350 hectares. Here, too, 50 hectares have been destroyed.

The Lachin State Nature Reserve was established in 1961. In 1988, it covered an area of 7,500 hectares. At present, 4,457 hectares remain, so 3,043 hectares have been destroyed by the Armenians.

The Arazboyu State Nature Reserve in Zangilan district was established in 1993 and covered an area of 1,700 hectares. At present, only 135 hectares remain. So 1,565 hectares have been destroyed. This information was obtained by “Azercosmos” using “Azersky” satellite and submitted to me. Therefore, I repeat that special groups must be sent there, examine the situation on the ground and document it, calculate the damage and register it as yet another act of environmental terror on the part of Armenia.

There are vast arable areas in the liberated lands. I have told the Ministry of Agriculture and the Presidential Administration to carry out some autumn sowing last year and this year without wasting much time. For this to happen though, we first had to clear those areas of mines, and some work has already been done. I would like to receive an update both on this issue and, in general, on the work done last year and to be done this year, including the liberated lands. Because we need to make most of the preparations before the spring season," noted the President.