Epress.am News from Armenia
Residents of the villages of Jrarat and Basen in Armenia’s Shirak Province are protesting against the community enlargement initiative proposed by the Armenian government. According to the villagers, not only will the initiative not help solve the problems facing the communities, but will also amplify them. In a video published by “Tsayg” TV, the protesters say they intend to take up the issue with Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan.
“Larger communities will never care for the problems of the smaller ones; they will first and foremost take care of their own issues,” a Jrarat villager says.
The villagers insist that richer communities will never share budget funds with Jrarat residents, and that “our poor community has nothing to offer in return. We just want to be left alone; no one but Jrarat residents will care for each other’s issues.”
“We have already had a similar unfortunate experience with community enlargement. Years ago there was a village called Khanvali above our village; by a 1953 government decision, this village was merged with Jrarat, ad by 1956, there was no trace of either residents or buildings there,” another Jrarat resident says.
Basen villagers do not like the enlargement idea either; they are convinced that merging their 1650-resident village with the 9000-resident Akhuryan will bring no positive changes for Basen. “The entire community has discussed the project and we’ve decided that we do not want it to be implemented here,” they state.