‘Entire Village is on its Feet’: Aragats Village Residents Protest, Ask Officials to Inspect Village Councilor

A dozen or so villagers were protesting outside the Armenian parliament building today. The protestors were from the village of Aragats in the region of Paran in Aragatsotn marz (province) and they were asking the National Assembly Control Chamber to carry out inspections at their village council’s office.

One of the protestors, Vahan, speaking to Epress.am, described the issue in detail:

“Our village is the largest village in the area — it has 4,600 residents — but today everyone wants to leave the village. It’s a terribly tense situation. No one understands what’s going on in the village, how the village councilor is working [i.e. what he’s up to]. He’s divided up the villagers into those who are his own folk and those who aren’t [i.e. he gives preferential treatment].”

Vahan said they handed over their appeals with signatures to the Armenian presidential residence, the parliamentary chair, and the Armenian government, but they have not yet received a response.

“There are so many problems in the village, you can’t imagine. Land estrangement is taking place; the villagers know nothing about it. The village councilor is transferring students’ tuition, but transfers are ensured for the children of families, not the vulnerable, and there are so many people in the village that are in debt, have loans, and they can’t pay their children’s tuition. Then, elite barley seeds have been given to the village on the government’s behalf, for the village councilor to give to needy families, but till now we don’t know where that barley has been sown, where the seeds went,” he said.

Vahan informed Epress.am that their village councilor, Gagik Poghosyan, has held his post for 12 years and recently registered with the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.

“We want them to come perform inspections, to find out what’s going on, for these people to be a little more calm. Otherwise, if the responses to these appeals are negative, the entire village is on its feet, is ready to come out in front of the government [building],” he said.