The founder of alternative metal-rock group “System of A Down” and social organization “Axis of Justice”, Serj Tankian has made an address for the preservation of Teghut. We present it below:
“The problem that I present is the forest of Teghut. During my visit to Armenia in 2011 I also visited the Region Lori. I saw the wonderful nature; I saw the towering forest that was still standing. In less than two years a lot has changed. It turns out that Teghut is one of the last and best preserved forests in Armenia and now it faces the danger of complete elimination. The reason is the creation of the pedmental mining site – the derivation of tailings dump with extremely poisonous waste and 600 million tones of additional waste of other types.
The empact: The Teghut forest is an exceptional ecosystem with trees having dense leafage, with rivers and rare plants and animals and despite that it is at stake of ever elimination. Today this magnificent national wonder is endangered to become an ecologically dead district which will affect for centuries and millenniums.
Justification: The company exploiting the mine and those who are for its opening reason that due to it the country will mark an economic growth and the local workers’ life will become prosperous.
Reality: Nowadays out of 500 mines of Armenia, the number of which is still growing, the country does not get significant income and mining industry has not had considerable and long-lasting positive effect on the mineworkers’ living standards. What concerns Teghut forest, the workers of possible mine must be from local 360 inhabitants. They endanger not only the health and life of their own, but also of their children and grandchildren and of coming generations. And this is only for 150 dollars per month. According to the project of mine exploitation, the process of exploitation will last from 25 to 30 years. But the beauty of Teghut forest will be lost forever.
The Alternative: To prevent the exploitation of the mine on open surface, to be more exact to stop it, it is extremely important to find alternative sources of income for this region. The district has very favorable conditions for agriculture. It is obvious that this is more purposeful for the region and for the country both in economic and ecological sense. The factories that are really concerned in the long-lasting development of Armenia must investigate the opportunities of developing Teghut in direction of its agriculture, but not in direction of finding precious metals and must invest capital for creating collective communities and small business. Finally there is nothing more important than environment and the health and prosperity of coming generations.
