The construction site in Yeraskh, a border village 55 kilometers south of Yerevan, came under cross-border fire on a virtually daily basis in June. Two Indian nationals working there were seriously wounded on June 14.
The gunfire began one week after the Azerbaijani government protested against the $70 million project. It claimed that building the industrial facility without its permission is a violation of international environmental norms. The Armenian Foreign Ministry brushed aside Baku’s “false” environmental concerns, saying that they are a smokescreen for impeding economic growth and foreign investment in Armenia.
Despite making defiant statements, Armenian and U.S. investors behind the project suspended work on the plant later in the summer.
A security guard at the Yeraskh construction site and several villagers told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday that the GTB joint venture began last week moving construction and industrial equipment from the site.
“They [Azerbaijani troops] have stopped shooting because the plant has been moved,” said one local woman.
A European Union mission monitoring the ceasefire regime along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan said in the morning that its members have “regularly patrolled the Yeraskh area to observe and oversee the dismantling of the steel plant.”
“By our presence, we contributed to the safe and secure transport of the material and the equipment to a new location,” it said on the X social media platform formerly called Twitter.
The mission removed the post later in the day, however. It wrote instead that EU monitors have been watching “security and military developments” in and around Yeraskh.
GTB issued, meanwhile, a cryptic statement seemingly denying that it is moving the under-construction plant away from the Azerbaijani border.
“Yeraskh will definitely have its continuation. As was [originally] planned and intended, it is only one of the production phases,” the statement said vaguely.
An RFE/RL crew spotted a new and active construction site near the town of Ararat, several kilometers from Yeraskh. But it was not allowed to enter the site and talk to workers.
Armenia’s largest gold mine also located on the border with Azerbaijan was likewise targeted by systematic Azerbaijani gunfire this spring. The Russian owner of the Sotk gold mine announced in June that it has no choice but to end open-pit mining operations there and put many of its 700 workers on unpaid leave.