Epress.am News from Armenia
Suren (Surik) Khachatryan, governor of the marz (province) of Syunik, sees nothing wrong in the word “dragonfly,” he said in conversation with local daily Yerkir. To the paper’s comment that the term can be insulting, the governor said: “She’s a dragonfly, so I called her a dragonfly — what’s wrong with that, what’s insulting? I don’t understand; dragonfly is a sweet word; there’s nothing insulting about it.”
Recall, during a recent visit to the remote Armenian village of Qajaran (also spelled Kajaran), environmental activists met with Khachatryan, who during their conversation, first threatened local activist Mariam Sukhudyan with “relax… remain a little rational, see that nothing happens to you” and then belittling her, said, “Ay, [little] dragonfly, talk less, will you?”
Speaking to Yerkir, Khachatryan, however, refuted that there was tension during the meeting. On his statement “be careful, so something bad doesn’t happen to you,” he said: “She was saying the [natural] environment of this area was bad [polluted], it’s this, it’s that, and I said, see that nothing bad happens to you. She was having a rally and I said, see that nothing happens to you. Shame on them if they say I threatened them. We departed [on good terms]; I bid them adieu and said call me if you have a problem.”
Recall, the environmentalists along with the residents of the village are asking that the government decision to hand over 181 hectares of land belonging to Qajaran and several other villages in the southeastern Syunik province to the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (Plant) be annulled and the lands returned to the villages. The plant plans to extend its open-pit mining operations in the region.
The video (in Armenian only) was uploaded on YouTube by the activists.