ArmInfo. "Tatoyan" Foundation Center for Law and Justice together with the U.S. law firm, Kerkonian Dajani LLP, filed a class action suit against Mohammad Reza Vaziri, CEO of Anglo Asian Mining PLC, in Washington DC in relation to Azerbaijan's ongoing blockade of Artsakh.
This case involves the role of DEFENDANT VAZIRI in aiding and abetting the false imprisonment and torture of 120,000 Armenians, including 30,000 children, in Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh), a self-governing enclave in the South Caucasus. On December 12, 2022, the government of Azerbaijan orchestrated a blockade of the only road connecting the 120,000 ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh with the outside world, thereby preventing anyone and anything from entering or exiting. The blockade has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Nagorno-Karabakh, depriving the Armenian population of access to food, medicine, heat, electricity, and normal living conditions.
Lawyers: Karnig Kerkonian, Elizabeth Al-Dajani, Ani Nazaryan, Laura Seferian, Garo Ghazarian and Arman Tatoyan.
As ArmInfo previously wrote, after the only road linking Armenia with Artsakh was blocked by the so- called Azerbaijani environmental activists and representatives of the law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan, information was circulated in the media that the Azerbaijani government transferred the management of the Kashen mine to the British company Anglo Asian Mining Company, located in the Martakert region of Artsakh, as part of a deal concluded in July 2022 in the amount of $3 billion.
Officially registered in the UK, Anglo Asian Mining Company said on its website that the concession agreement dated July 5, 2022 included three mines, with a total area of 340 square miles. One of the mines that Azerbaijan transferred to the company is the Kashen copper-molybdenum mine in the Martakert region of the Republic of Artsakh. The media write that the company used the Azerbaijani name Kashen in its message and said that as of January 2016, the mine's reserves amounted to 275 thousand tons of copper and 3.2 thousand tons of molybdenum. It is noted that the company used data previously published by the current operator of the mine, the Armenian company Base Metals.
John Henry Sununu, whop was White House chief of staff under President George H. W. Bush, is one of of the Anglo Asian Mining Company shareholders (9.3%). Limelight Industrial Developments holds 3.5% of the company shares. Iranian national Mohammad Reza Vaziri, CEO of Anglo Asian Mining PLC, owns 28% of the company shares and has business in Azerbaijan.
Base Metal is currently the operator of the Kashen mine and largest taxpayer in Artsakh. According to its annual report, in 2021, the company paid more than $22 million in taxes, then before the war, this amount was about $48 million. The company is part of composition of the Vallex Group. In addition to Kashen, Vallex operates the Drmbon gold mine, also located in the Martakert region of Artsakh. Exploration work at the Kashensky mine began in 2007. According to Vallex Group, about $130 million was invested in the mine.
Detailed information is available here: https://tatoyanfoundation.org/tatoyan-foundation-center-for-law-and-justice-together-with-the-u-s-law-firm-kerkonian-dajani-llp-filed-a-class-action-suit-against-mohammad-reza-vaziri-ceo-of-anglo-asian-mining-plc-in-washingto/?lang=en