Only an illiterate, sick person or traitor can compare the exploitation of the Amulsar gold mine with Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). This is what Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of Artsakh, Head of the Central Information Department of the Staff of the President of Artsakh Davit Babayan told Armenian News-NEWS.am as he commented on political scientist Ara Papyan’s statement.

“Today I read Ara Papyan’s Facebook post in which he claims that the issue of exploitation of the Amulsar gold mine is the most important issue for the Armenian people. According to Papyan, the Armenian people can live without Artsakh, but not without water. There are three kinds of Armenians who can allow themselves to make such statements — Armenians who don’t have sufficient knowledge to make judgments on such important issues, Armenians who have psychological disorders and Armenians who undermine Armenian statehood,” Davit Babayan said.

“I wouldn’t like to classify Papyan as one of those Armenians. I just really want to hope that he simply doesn’t have sufficient knowledge. To fill the gap, I repeat what is said and what I have been repeating for the past 20 years, and that is that the Armenian people have four major issues, including Artsakh, the salvation of Lake Sevan, preservation of the national identity and international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Two of these issues — Artsakh and Lake Sevan — are interconnected. The environmental safety of Armenia directly depends on Artsakh. In this subtext, what is particularly important is the Karvatchar region from where the Arpa and Vorotan Rivers nourishing Lake Sevan begin, and it is this region that ensures 85% of the water resources of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. The aforementioned three kinds of Armenians can overlook the importance of this. It is extremely important to remember that such attempts can become catastrophic for the Armenian people,” Davit Babayan concluded.