12:40, 5 February 2004

Leader of Armenian Greens accuses British Petroleum and World Bank of bribing local population in areas of Baku-Tbilisi-Jeikhan oil pipeline construction

Leader of the Armenian Green Union Akop Sanasarian accused British Petroleum Company and the World Bank of deceiving and bribing the local population in the areas of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeikhan oil pipeline construction. At the conference on ecological issues that was held in Yerevan on 3 February by the Regional Ecological Center, he said there were researches of South Caucasian scientists concerning the negative effect the pipeline would have on the ecology. According to him, organizations concerned with the oil pipeline construction disregard interests of the region's people and conceal all information from them. Akop Sanasarian noted that people in the areas of construction were given scanty funds, which could not compensate the damage to be done as the destructive consequences of this project are irreplaceable. The Armenian Greens' leader believes the agreements signed between the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in connection with the Baku-Jeikhan project contradict the constitutions of these countries and the citizens' constitutional rights.

Source: ARMINFO News Agency