YEREVAN (Armenpress)– The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)–one of the three members of the governing coalition–said Tuesday it was seriously concerned that a Turkish company was given permission to conduct mapping activities in the Sotk gold mines in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province. The Turkish Spektra-Gertek company has been contracted by the Indian Sterling Gold company to exploit the mines.
Hrayr Karapetian–secretary of the ARF parliamentary faction–argued during a Question and Answers session Tuesday that allowing a Turkish company to carry out studies in this strategic region that borders Azerbaijan gravely threatened Armenia’s national security.
Spektra-Gertek was sub-contracted by a Turkish-Russian IBM company that won a 2004 deal announced by the Armenian state committee in charge of mapping. The committee’s leadership has assured that Turkish specialists would do the satellite photographing of around 8,000 square km of Armenian territory while the mapping work would be done by Armenian specialists. According to Karapetian–that does not guarantee that these important findings might not be given to Armenia’s rival country.