a drag on the global economy in 2020 counting the cost on al-jazeera. 2018 a new government came to power in armenia amid widespread optimism that its leader nicole shenyang quit and decades of corruption and economic mismanagement but now his administration faces a major dilemma whether to proceed with a huge be defensive mining project that some a warning will cause enormous environmental damage and endangered one of the world's rarest animal species. the former soviet republic of armenia has witnessed dramatic changes in the last 12 months. a bloodless revolution led by journalist turned politician nicole pushing a promised an end to decades of corrupt rule this. is just one a snap election and for the 1st time in years there is hope to ms m o 1st priority is to continue. to call it will listen and to make a real difference to see nothing in the economy. or mania has enjoyed years of blockades imposed by its neighbors turkey and azerbaijan the country's economy never really recovering from the collapse of the u.s.'s own. previous governments resorted to leasing its mineral rich benton's to foreign mining concerns it was driven by need for revenue but it also cools and momus and won a mental damage even worse say some of the economic benefits were only ever enjoyed by a few new army of oh sure the problem out. there still will go to those who move along world nor should you will. cool the loss of some of those in the who she said beautiful shall but it will it's the privilege. of the latest of these mining projects is proving she usually divisive supported by the previous government and poised to begin work it is said to exploit a massive gold deposit in the south of the country but it is being blockaded by activists who believe that profits are less important than on main is unique environment you can't drink gold or you can't eat gault you can't just bury gold you need pure environment for life. what happens next. where the mind goes ahead will the activists win that battle lies in the hands of the new prime minister nicole pushing me and. it's a decision that could affect the future of his administration and threaten the ecosystem and even the fate of one of the world's most imperiled animal species. tiny landlocked all mean year is the oldest christian country in the world. blessed with rich soils it is also considered to be the birthplace of wine and even today agriculture forms the mainstay of the economy. the magnificent mind ararat where many believe the remains of noah's ark will one day be found is the national symbol. today the mountains of armenia like the fabled on remain a refuge for many endangered animals the hunting ground of the world's rarest big cat the cook asian leopard of which there are estimated to be only 10 left in the country. this unique footage was captured by trial cameras. alexander more caution a rule authority on the reclusive animal has been charting the leopard's battle for survival for over 20 years as an awful events and outdated doric what. was shelagh the birds so show off. yes but you know got me a lot of calls loaf. our not wear that they get dirty years i'd say. what you're not going of course the good lick of. but the fate of this magnificent beast hangs in the balance with the new mine ready and waiting to get into production yes there are lots of days many of. them where you are but it was enough to go. deep within the karabakh ridge a mountain called amel saw which translates as the barren place is ironically the side of a massive gold deposit discovered by anglo-american mining company lydian international who intend to extract the precious metal by means of a controversial he pleasing process. maybe an international as a biggest foreign investor in the cult during last for been years we invested about 500000000000 over this project is very important for the economy or. we designed the project to be. environmentally. safe 1st of all he pleased to her knowledge she doesn't have to face down there is no issues with water no issues with the health of community. but local see things differently fearful that their lives are about to change forever. the tourism in the free trade which have always been the main source of income will be destroyed if the mine goes ahead. spurred on by the recent revolution for the last 6 months protesters have blocked all roads to the mountain stopping for the mine construction. at 1st we leave out our cars then we bring and now we bring temporary houses like this is the place we are living now. this is our scene well that's we must save almost sorry we thought our hands our mom i know we're almost sorry and. we must save eat right home michael he was not going to while we were on last night while we john are you going to tell your son john i would get your rights reborn as a loved you document your for on cardboard see i bore sure none of them made her michael j. got all those the. many. have come to this remote to support the book ages. people like annie from the capital younger than he was a 7 year old son is. every time i go to. ask in need to stay with him and i just explain him that if i don't go. who who can go so i feel some moral duty to go there and to spend with them anyway it's a little bit difficult because i'm a girl and they're all boys but i can say that during this months we became just like family. let us know when there's just this nice woman ya got so she'll you start to hear sure should just leave it right it. wouldn't publish with. the blockade has proved for a marketplace thanks to. the machinery and trucks light idle the project is literally frozen which is it. it's about how the dollar but now it's more because we're lost people. professionals we pair of mean 800270 courtrooms. the blockade is making some people jittery because of the wider implications. for not coming one day close all the mines because they will have basically you will be destroying a big part of your budget thousands and thousands of people will be out of the job armenia's titular head of state president sarkozy and used to be on the board of lydian the blockaders believe he's just one of many power brokers backing the mind his role was more of brokering this potential big investment into the country as opposed to anything else. i'm a soccer fan has been a fixer for this mining project and we wanted to. we actually asked him directly questions of what was his role and asked him to disclose information that is particularly important at the moment. he denied to disclose information when you join a board you sign off and then shouted my cautions is absolutely clear what i did absolutely clear. non the less the blockade is a wary of the president preferred to put their faith in armenia's new prime minister nicole pushing him on his shoulders the future of the minaya rests a political outsider and then followed man of the people last spring the shinya was swept into office on an unprecedented wave of popular support. he promised to end the endemic corruption in the dog his country under the decade long rule of former president. of the republican party. legitimacy i mean social. psychological of republican support there is they were not popular even 10 years ago with this except because the truth . a former political prisoner began a long march from the west of the country to the capital yerevan much of the time with his wife at his side in her that the women. had up and sent up i doubt it was. yet a good hour to get it behind our back to someone else almost. like it's number of us at home in costumes us that's a pretty good that's the good knots i levels. most economists that. with hundreds of thousands of supporters on the streets. running he became prime minister instead of socks in pushing eunice yoon pilot and the velvet revolution. immediately set about tackling corruption with high profile cases like the matter of yerevan his numerous mansions were filmed by a drain the video of which went viral on the internet people were insane sed love that there's no options to pushing in additional. dish in your us 3 little well there was a rule in the us that in stuck in the populace. well not all soon. probably was to become from the un your boss on the. culture of corruption came from the soviet era and it was and it wasn't fought with in the early stages all army as independence just like it was the case on other in other countries it became a norm. the mining industry and body to that corruption say activists extraction permits given by politicians without due process or proper scrutiny had terrible environmental consequences. the armenian environmental front a volunteer group mom says pollution levels of mines across the country including kinds iran are manias biggest we have many mines in armenia we have a small country saw but we have huge mines here we have the tailing dump which is one of the biggest in the world. for decades the countries mineral wealth has been plundered by an oligarchy at the cost of the environment lacks legislation and very low fines on pollution lead to explosion of mining industry. that's a good corporate mind north of the capital is a typical example even before the mine began operations locals say many of them were compelled to sell their land to the company for a fraction of its value if they really enjoyment out of. shot on the. gorge or made a wish mannings on its chanel table tamang kids. your socks on your own particularly as it gets in you doesn't want a socialist it's worse was to come it turned out that the tail down. had a construction issue and it was cracking and that was a major rescue off toxins leaking into their violence so they had to shut down but no before did released a poisonous discharge into the river a dead bed once one of the cleanest in the country contaminating land for miles around and. iraq produces vodka from his sharon trees but there is no guarantee that it's free from contamination by heavy metals discharge from the mine. soil samples from farms in the vicinity shows serious contamination is paired trees dried up completely and no longer bear fruit so he's had no choice but to start from scratch in the hope that new plantings fared better . arak films discharge from the mine going straight into the river bank mikado langkow run company may link you don often to languor i think will make on either car think on the market on the chaotic that they're all buy for noncommercial villainies best news the protesters will saw fear they will suffer a similar fate if the mine goes ahead but director of sustainability philip you know mania arman step in human remains sanguine about any potential risk recover buried them in the crushed material all the way down to this facility which is here the hitler just is about 1.12 moments away from the votes that he played facilities were crushed rock will be does to the cyanide to extract the gold right by the village of ken the vice. versa. it's about 1000 tonnes a year. and even before the mine has actually gone into production inhabitants of can devise complained of incidence . well there so let me assume chuck got. fired about. well you know you can combine our stolen jewelry you have shot meds of a tongue there reschedule current work of a. marker you have to order. the south caucasus is one of the richest regions in the world for biodiversity and nowhere more so than. the world wide fund for nature conducted numerous field studies on the mountain that are completely years old with the company's assertion that the mind poses new threats to wildlife we found these bought into therefore out that these are at least the species of plant . you for i'm not mistaken 15 species of birds we count one species of mammal this is brown bear. and 3 species of snakes perhaps even more importantly than this the proposed mine is cited in the middle of one of only 2 corridors used by the endangered caucasian leopard comes on city area because like you. have you see monkeys here it's very important for me gratian of lead part of that and also connects both of these ranges so in short mining project it's for. call of that. you know one of the corridors partly the last big chart over europe and we should protect it. well if there's a leopard or a nodding then it's you know we will be able to do specific you know specific action plan. and by by having by changing be environment you actually also create an environment for your species but that's what happens. but it's not just animal species that could be affected. i mean 9 miles from the i'm also mine is the sport and of jimmy famed for its spring water where there is also open hostility solidity and 70 percent of german i mean to these. people who are against all of these they are thinking about their future and german spa place and you know many people go to. their house in the summer jimmy could try to visitors from all over the former soviet union it's a sort of bulge in borden of the south caucasus but this distinctly up market atmosphere might be about to change if the mine goes ahead. according to libyan's environmental and social impact assessment similar projects have experienced increased out a whole consumption new all widening commercial sex networks and prostitution it solution distribution of condoms and information materials in local restaurants and entertainment areas. local businesses are understandably anxious about the future if. shut my 1000 accounts on me as yours of us i would jump off earlier i've had our time without all the meds or or school of right. or the new general argument with adults running on the wood from. a more fundamental concern is that the close proximity of the mine could i'd firstly affect jimmy's famous mineral water. and maybe even further afield. this is lake 7 the largest body of freshwater in the caucasus holding some 25 percent of all meanies freshwater. levon is captain of a soviet built research vessel that monitors the like get ideas up grandma the bit where the mother was a. yeah. well that's the god it's always around it's just that it was we're probably on your she were the other there nor does is that there's the border of what she's. got with. the lake is connected to the catch at reservoir which is less than 3 miles from the mall saw so could any toxic discharge from the mine also threaten the lake. according to libyan's environmental and social impact assessment lake 7 will not be impacted. if i recalled the words correctly the problem is negligible there is no input however many of your meaning is leading the scientists on most convinced these are biodiversity experts or experts in hydrology or hydrogen ology they're concerned and they've expressed their negative opinion on them on the validate the off their risk assessment is the up which you are the problem of would have. to have travelled sivana by the most bullshit probably recall of issues there but almost all civil no no secured obfuscates of what they put visitor to go not ask about you know what is here. to me. like a rut it is impossible to overstate the cultural significance of like service to romania and the new prime minister has been obliged to take notice the position of prime minister is that there shall be proper. impact assessments and proper investigation understands. is it really that there is a risk for impact of lace and as a result of. explain the test of almost i'm right or not. whether the most in all sense was the whole this region is going to damage based on current mentation yes no one really knows. the history positively of the war though we don't between the recent years you are going back to this is going to do no. such is the importance of this issue the just days before last december the snap election cooled to decide whether pushing in should stay in office he came to the blockade to hear the concerns of the protesters about life and death you know if it went off and i thought the whole don't ever given that you stick by i was ever made to have a killer take to get to you because it's like you just in chicago models are make a demotion from the office maybe not going home course members from the 3rd are called melancholic evil men are going home cos numbers from the next from the children. the prime minister moved on to jimmy page where he addressed by those in such an election rather he seemed to hint where his sympathies lie on the mines future it 4 stars limbaugh topic it passed doma if aides are as if they only an hour before stakeout would to now. 40 he mom butt out god live for even. if that a minus is i think i got a little knot of good cheer and you know i saw a lot of black sheep. if she got a. little hot to not made it sooner i asked bonnie some jack on the child id he admits still that he. did sound a hunk got. on but i got that they leave the mosque that cost me of make it hot so you need to make it they will walk i've. known the last fishing in his safe oh my niche to avoid taking a decision on the animals song mine the biggest investment project in the history of all mania and. now he faces a stark choice that could either deter foreign investment or alienate the very people who put him where he is it's an uncertain time but one thing seems clear the blockade is on gang anyway. in september 29th being prime minister and the culprit shiny and finally announced that his government had no beleaguered basis to prevent the construction and extraction of the yaml somalia and called on environmentalists to lift that blockade of sight as if every 2020 the activists were still in place the stalemate continues. progress. or a serious mistake. intelligence is slowly invading every aspect of our lives. but very few of us really understand its capabilities for better or worse. in a new documentary i'll just 0 explores the impact of they are accessing vast amounts of our personal data 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of. al-jazeera. where every. this is al-jazeera. and i'm richelle carey this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes. a deadly confrontation between a u.s. patrol and villagers inside syria as turkey warns it will strike hard if its soldiers are targeted again. china reports a drop in cases of coronavirus but the world health organization warns too early to tell whether the worst is over. italy's former deputy prime minister is set to go on trial for keeping migrants at sea as the country's.