A broad public discussion of environmental problems began in the mid-1980s, when the first "green" groups formed in opposition to Erevan’s intense industrial air pollution and to nuclear powergeneration in wake of the 1986 reactor explosion at Chernobyl.【S1】______Environmental issues helped form the basis of the nationalist independence movement when environmental demonstrationssubsequently merged with these for other political causes in the【S2】______late 1980s. In independent Armenia, environmental issues divide societyinto those who fear of "environmental time bombs" and those who【S3】______view resumption of pollution-prone industrial operations as the onlymean of improving the country’s economy. In the early 1990s, the【S4】______latter group blamed Armenia’s economic woes on a role played by【S5】______the former in closing major industries. In 1994 three national environmental laws were in effect: the Law on Environmental Protection, the Basic Law on the Environment, and the Law on Mineral Resources. The Council of Ministers, Armenia’s cabinet, includes a minister of theenvironment. Therefore, no comprehensive environmental protection【S6】______program has emerged, and decisions on environmental policy have been made on an ad hoc basis. Environmental conditions in Armenia have been worsened by the Azerbaijani blockade of supplies and electricity from outside. The results of the blockade and the failure of diplomatic efforts to liftit led the government propose reconstruction of the Armenian Atomic【S7】______Power Station at Metsamor, which was closed after the 1988 earthquake because of its location in an earthquake-prone area andwhat had the same safety problems as reactors listed as dangerous in【S8】______Bulgaria, Russia, and Slovakia. After heating debates over startup【S9】______continued through 1993, French and Russian nuclear consultants declared operating conditions basically safe. Continuation of the blockade into 1994 gave added emergency to the decision.【S10】______【S6】