Epress.am News from Armenia
Regardless the amount of compensation, no one is preparing to give up their forefathers’ lands and tombs, said member of the “Save Trchkan Waterfall” initiative Yeghia Nersisyan, speaking at a press conference in Yerevan today on the plight of residents of the southern Armenian village of Qajaran, where a recent government decision has meant that over 180 hectares of land in Syunik marz (“province”) is now “priority public interest” land and thereby no longer belongs to the city but to the state, who plans to sell it to a mining company, notably the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine (Plant).
“Whilst meeting with us the villagers with great enthusiasm and extreme vigor were resisting the marzpet, which they’d never done before. Yes, all the same, the village residents will fight till the end — it’s just that they need our support. Qajaran must be preserved not only for its cultural values, but also because the fact of being a border village forces us to save it. The soldier standing on the border has bravado when there’s a village behind his back and this is the most important,” she said.
Recall, on Dec. 16 activists protested the government decision outside the Armenian government building in Yerevan, during which time they declared they would be visiting Qajaran (also spelled Kajaran) in the coming days. Activists insist that mine exploitation will make the village inhabitable, thereby displacing residents.
“In Qajaran, by coincidence we met [Syunik] marzpet [regional governor] Suren Khachatryan, who initially greeted us with hostility. He was accompanied by several cars — with the aim of creating an atmosphere of fear. Poor man orients himself better in Armenia Marriott Hotel [referring to an incident in which Khachatryan slapped entrepreneur Silva Hambardzumyan] than in his own province where he’s been ruling for decades. The man bearing the noble name of Khachatryan for a long time was unable to find the road to the village, which he is so easily preparing to uproot,” said member of the Sardarapat civic movement Tigran Khzmalyan, who also mentioned the problems resulting from mining, noting that research conducted by Ecolor indicates more than the allowable amount of mercury and arsenic have been found in the hair of the children residing in this village.
According to Khmazlyan, unlike with the marzpet and the Armenian authorities, Qajaran mayor Rafik Atayan approaches the issue completely differently.
“He’s smarter than the president of our country and conscious of more than the prime minister, the marzpets and their people who are considered to be the political elite. The mayor says they, 100 people, are keeping a thousand people, while they are offering 100 jobs — but who’s going to keep those 1,000 people? He also said that in this state of war how can they empty the village and after all, who is our soldier going to defend?” said Khzmalyan.
Nersisyan, in turn, said that the marzpet made several threats against them. “Khachatryan threatened [environmental activist] Mariam Sukhudyan that ‘be careful, so suddenly something bad doesn’t happen to you’ or that he was preparing to hit me with his fists…”
Nersisyan described the poor state of the village, emphasizing that a long time has passed since a water pipe at the plant burst and the entire village was flooded with water which soon froze. Furthermore, she said, all of the villagers’ appeals to the regional governing office to deal with this accident have been ignored.
“This also proves that the regional governing office is doing everything possible to tire the villagers and displace them,” she said.
The speakers asserted that their impressions were more brutal than they imagined before going to visit Qajaran.
“At the meeting with us, the employees of the Syunik regional governing office told us that they can’t do anything for land considered ‘priority, public interest’ land. The villagers clearly say that they’re not preparing to surrender their lands. They charge that no one considered their opinion when making this decision. The aim of our organization is to make these people’s voices heard by and accessible to all. Soon we will present to the public four-hour long new and serious videos; we will publish everything which was shot in recent days in Syunik marz,” said another speaker at today’s press conference, Ecolor Informational NGO representative Hermine Yenokyan.
Photo: Ecolur