YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s deputy minister of territorial administration and infrastructures Lilia Shushanyan has sent a letter to the representatives of companies making investments in Azerbaijan, proposing to revise their investment decisions in various projects.

Deputy minister Shushanyan has addressed the letter to the board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

“I have sent a letter to the EITI Board addressing particularly the companies and investors representatives in the Board, some of which have investments in Azerbaijan. I have raised the importance of responsible investment principle and proposed to reconsider their investment decisions in various projects demonstrating that principles adopted by the EITI Standard does make a real impact”, she said.

The deputy minister stated that in her letter she presented Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack against the peaceful settlements of the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia with the political and military support of Turkey, which supplies foreign terrorist mercenaries recruited from Syria and Libya to fight on the Azeri side, which in its turn poses a serious threat to the people, economy and stability of the region.

“Good management of the extractive sector should contribute to the welfare of the country’s citizens, while non-transparent governance of natural resources leads to illegal economic activities, such as money laundering, financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, the results of which lead to hostilities against the civilian population and growth of international corruption. I have reminded that the membership of Azerbaijan in EITI was suspended due to non-compliance with the EITI requirements derived from democratic values”, the deputy minister said.

Azerbaijan launched an attack on Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) on September 27 with the support of Turkey, targeting also the civilian settlements, including the capital Stepanakert. Civilians were killed in Artsakh as a result of the Azerbaijani offensive.

Heavy battles are taking place between the Azerbaijani and Artsakh sides, with both suffering huge losses both in the manpower and the military equipment. But the losses of the Azerbaijani side are much more than that of the Artsakh side. The Azerbaijani armed forces have also targeted Armenia’s military and civilian infrastructures. There is evidence that Turkey is directly engaged in Azerbaijan’s offensive, in particular it transported mercenaries from Syria for using them against Artsakh.