Participants of the march in defense of Amulsar have partially blocked traffic in central Yerevan.

As reported earlier, the march began from the grove of the National Assembly, and the participants are marching through Baghramyan Street, Mashtots Avenue, Amiryan Street and Republic Square.

The opinions of experts and the public on exploitation of the Amulsar gold mine vary. Some people, under the leadership of the country’s authorities, say Lydian has to be allowed to develop the mine in accordance with the license issued by the former authorities, while others, first and foremost the residents of Jermuk town who live near the mine, are against exploitation of the mine. Environmentalists say development of the mine poses a potential threat to all rivers of Armenia and Lake Sevan and will directly cause harm to Jermuk. In addition, there is a lot of information according to which there is not much gold in the mine, and according to a study conducted during the Soviet era, there is uranium in the mine, not gold (https://news.am/eng/news/529471.html).

Lydian was issued a license by the former authorities, and some experts believe that the incumbent authorities can retrieve the license and that this won’t lead to the consequences for the country that the authorities are intimidating the public with.