Azeri official blames S Caucasus states for environmental pollution

Azerbaijani ecology minister has blamed the South Caucasus countries for polluting environment.

“Georgia, Armenia and Turkey play a particular role in polluting the Kur and Araz rivers that flow through Azerbaijan, consequently causing the Caspian pollution,” Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyngulu Baghirov told the 6th international conference of ecology ministers held in Belgrade.

Baghirov said that unlike Azerbaijan, the three countries had not joined yet the Helsinki Convention for the protection and use of transborder waterways. Only Azerbaijan, among other South Caucasian countries, holds regular monitoring on purification of transborder waters, he said.

The minister said that new laboratories and water-purifying facilities had been installed with a view to preventing the pollution of the Caspian.

Baghirov also said that it was impossible to receive necessary information from other countries to carry out general assessment.*