For several days now, the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia has been blocked by Azerbaijanis who claim to be environmentalists. The BBC says in an article, however, that the campaign looks more political than environmental.

“For example, the participants carried a large flag of Azerbaijan, many of them wrapped in the national flag. Several women are wearing fur coats at the campaign, which gives additional reason to doubt that the participants have anything to do with the eco-movement,” the article says.

“Whether these are real eco-activists or not is still an open question. Judging by the video from the scene, among the protesters there are employees of state-owned companies and even, as the BBC Azerbaijan Service reports, workers from Turkish companies.”

In early December, representatives of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy wanted to inspect the conditions for the exploitation of mineral deposits in Karabakh, but the monitoring apparently did not take place.

The BBC argues that there are more serious problems in Azerbaijan itself than the state of deposits in Karabakh.

“They are mainly associated with oil production. In addition, well-known eco-activists regularly draw the attention of the Ministry of Ecology to deforestation and the destruction of rare animals. Last year, safari tourism made headlines: it turned out that residents of rich Arab countries, with the inaction of the authorities, come to Azerbaijan to hunt birds from the Red Book,” the article reports.