{"id":7747,"date":"2019-10-09T23:02:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T19:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/armecofront.net\/?p=7747"},"modified":"2019-10-16T21:41:48","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T17:41:48","slug":"ebrd-twists-the-findings-of-elard-review-on-amulsar-gold-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/ebrd-twists-the-findings-of-elard-review-on-amulsar-gold-project\/","title":{"rendered":"EBRD Twists the Findings of ELARD Review on Amulsar Gold Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EBRD-Lydian\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mediamax, a media outlet that has served to praising Lydian Armenia, published an \u201cexclusive\u201d interview<\/a> on September 24 with J\u00fcrgen Rigterink, Vice-Chairperson of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In his interview, EBRD\u2019s Vice-Chairman made a contradictory statement regarding the conclusion of ELARD-TRC experts commissioned by Armenia\u2019s government to carry out an independent review of Lydian\u2019s Environmental impact assessment documents for the Amulsar Gold Mine project. He said: \u201cI think it was wise when the government asked for an additional external study to confirm what the company [Lydian]<\/em> has been saying is true.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement like this by the executives of the Bank either points to an outright twisting and lying about the findings of the ELARD-TRC review or to a complete unawareness of the 170-page (English) document\u2019s main idea. It is surprising that Vice-Chairman Rigterink makes this statement after having received Armenian Environmental Front\u2019s letter to Lydian\u2019s investors to divest<\/a> from the project. In this letter we had pointed out to the main conclusion of the ELARD-TRC review<\/a> that Lydian\u2019s EIA documents were incomplete, the negative impact was underestimated, therefore it was impossible to state that the operation of the mine could be safe. Mr. Rigterink, apparently, is considering such a blatant failure by Lydian a confirmation of what it was saying.<\/p>\n

EBRD\u2019s Vice-Chairman also does not shun to reiterate to Mediamax Lydian\u2019s well-worn argument. \u201cOur engagement with Lydian also means that we feel comfortable that this company has met and will meet international standards [on social and environmental risks],\u201d says J\u00fcrgen Rigterink. This is yet another unapologetic lie. We would like to see these financiers sit down and talk to scientists, like at the video conversation<\/a> with ELARD experts and Armenia\u2019s government and their interaction between Lydian\u2019s executives, during which the experts did not hide their anger at the absurd allegations made by Lydian.<\/p>\n

EBRD, a bank financed by EU member states is accountable to the citizens of these states. As a reminder, the issue of EBRD\u2019s responsibility was raised at a recent meeting with a number of MP of the Euroepan Parliament. On October 1, 2019, Armenian Environmental Front briefed the MPs over the issues of the Amulsar gold project, the independent expert opinions and the fact that EBRD continues to be part of a project whose executives have misled the government of Armenia by presenting incomplete EIA documents underestimating the negative impact on the environment. The few MPs were also presented a briefing note documenting the current situation around Amulsar, quotes from the ELARD-TRC report and steps expected from the EBRD, i.e. that EBRD demand a new EIA from its client Lydian or that EBRD divest from the project and stop lending. The full English version of the document can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We conclude from the following words of EBRD\u2019s Vice-Chairman that EBRD is exerting a direct pressure on the Government of Armenia in order for the latter to make a decision in favor of the corporation. \u201cThe decision is needed [over Amulsar], because if you want to attract foreign investors, they need to feel that there is a stable investment climate and they can actually rely on the government.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

With unified force we should continue to fight for the truth and should not allow banks to trample upon the interests of people of Armenia and the\u00a0democratization<\/span> process of our country.<\/p>\n

More about EBRD and Amulsar see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Armenian Environmental Front (AEF) civil initiative<\/em>
\nEmail: armecofront@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mediamax, a media outlet that has served to praising Lydian Armenia, published an \u201cexclusive\u201d interview on September 24 with J\u00fcrgen Rigterink, Vice-Chairperson of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In his interview, EBRD\u2019s Vice-Chairman made a contradictory statement regarding the conclusion of ELARD-TRC experts commissioned by Armenia\u2019s government to carry out an independent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-7747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amulsar-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7747"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7753,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7747\/revisions\/7753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7747"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.armecofront.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=7747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}