The motion on Sarsang reservoir, occupied by Armenia, with the signatures of 45 MP’s from 18 countries to be reviewed at the Bureau meeting of PACE on September 2. Mr. Elkhan Suleymanov, Member of PACE, MP from Shamakhi, President of ACSDA addressed to the PACE leadership regarding this question,APA reports, Elkhan Suleymanov has sent letters to Mr. Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr. Woyciech Sawicki, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and Bureau members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Media reports that Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan has launched the project “Sarsang – prevention of humanitarian catastrophe.
Sarsang reservoir was built at 726 meters above sea level (with dam of 125 meters high and capacity of 560 million cubic meters) on Tartar River in 1976. The main channels from Sarsang reservoir supplied water to farmlands in the plains of seven provinces of Azerbaijan before armed Armenian aggression and occupation.
Sarsang reservoir is under the occupation of Armenia since 1992, and consequently, those bordering provinces are deprived of opportunities to use Sarsang reservoir. Technical devices and equipments have been under emergency state due to the lack of technical maintenance for over 20 years since the occupation of Sarsang reservoir. Thus, the reservoir is very likely to collapse due to natural disaster, technical and deliberate diversion. Therefore, Sarsang reservoir has currently become a source of serious threat for Azerbaijan; this threat is becoming very real.
Obviously, any diversion, technogeneous or natural disaster is much likely to lead to ecological crisis and destruction of biological diversity, as well as mass casualties of 400,000 civilians living in non-occupied downstream provinces of Azerbaijan, and a new humanitarian catastrophe. Therefore, the current status of Sarsang reservoir poses constant danger to the lives of these people, and they have become the hostage of this dangerous situation.
On the other hand, the aggressive state opens the water from Sarsang reservoir in winter; thus, the lands are flooded, and roads erode. And in summer when people and agriculture mostly need water, they stop the water. Consequently, economy, as well as agriculture of Azerbaijan was seriously hampered since the occupation, greenery dried, persistent processes occurred in biological structure of the land, and serious ecological tension emerged in the region.
In the context of aforesaid, the purpose of the project by ACSDA is to raise awareness both in Azerbaijani society and in international community about the status of Sarsang reservoir, possible humanitarian catastrophe, biological and ecological crisis, to achieve the adoption of relevant documents in international organisations, to prepare package of activities for the prevention of possible humanitarian catastrophe and ecological crisis, etc.
I am a member of Azerbaijani Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Though PACE MPs have submitted draft documents on the occupation of territories of Azerbaijan twice in line with the rules of procedures, unfortunately, the Bureau blocked discussions of these documents. Taking into account the seriousness of the problem, a new draft document on Sarsang reservoir signed by 45 MPs representing 18 European countries was submitted in PACE on June 25. We hope that this draft document will not repeate the fate of previous documents and the Bureau members will demonstrate that they do not neglect potential tragedy within the zone Council of Europe.
Finally, I would like to stress that ACSDA launched the the 18 months’ project on Sarsang reservoir in May of 2013. Taking into consideration the aforesaid, as a President of ACSDA and project manager, I call on PACE leadership and PACE members to make contribution to the objectives of this project.
Dear colleagues,
Hopefully, the PACE Bureau and Bureau members will take resolute steps towards the liberation of Sarsang reservoir from Armenian occupation.
