Former Armenian MP: By invading Armenian territory, Azerbaijan pursued a specific goal—the control of its infrastructure and resources

Arminfo. Azerbaijan’s incursions into the territory of Armenia had a specific goal—control over critical infrastructure and resources. Former Armenian parliament member and member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Tigran Abrahamyan wrote this on his Facebook page.

As the former parliament member noted, Azerbaijani media recently announced with great fanfare that the first blasting operations had been carried out at the Sotk gold deposit. "The same report notes that since August 2025, large-scale exploration and assessment studies had been conducted at the deposit, as a result of which the remaining recoverable reserves were estimated at 1.03 million ounces of gold," Abrahamyan added.

In this regard, the RPA member recalled that part of this enormous deposit, which had been developed by Armenia since the Soviet period, came under Azerbaijan’s control after the 44-day war in 2020, while part of it is located in the neutral zone.  "After 2020, in 2021-2023, the directions of Azerbaijan’s incursions into the territory of Armenia were not chosen by chance. Some of them control important infrastructure facilities in Armenia, others control water resources, while I will not yet speak about the Sotk deposit and its significance," Abrahamyan concluded.

It should be noted that the Sotk mine is operated by the GeoProMining group of companies. It is the largest gold deposit in Armenia. The company also operates the Ararat gold extraction plant in Armenia. The mine is located on the border of Gegharkunik Province and the Karvachar district of occupied Artsakh. After the 2020 hostilities, the so-called border ran directly along the mine, and the lion’s share of it came under Azerbaijan’s control.