Epress.am News from Armenia
Residents of 7 rural communities of Aragatsotn marz (province) protesting construction of a hydroelectric power station near the villages of Karbi and Ohanavan gathered this morning in the center of Ohanavan, expecting to meet RA Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Territorial Administration Armen Gevorgyan, but after waiting for a few hours, they learned that the meeting will not be taking place, a resident of the village of Ushi, Lena Petrosyan, informed Epress.am.
According to her, they were promised that the deputy prime minister would come and personally meet with the villagers to get acquainted with their concerns; however, hours later, Ohanavan's village head found out that Gevorgyan will come to the village a few days later.
Environmental activist Gevorg Safaryan, who joined the villagers today, informed the Epress.am correspondent that the villagers felt cheated and initially blocked the road leading to Ushi and Ohananvan, but later, gradually began to disperse.
"They came to meet [the deputy PM], but the village head said the meeting will take place next week, as well as saying that he wants 15–20 people at the meeting and not a huge mass — this further enraged the crowd. They insisted that they will all participate in the meeting, after which the demonstration ended," he said.
The villagers also insisted they will continue their protests in Yerevan, if they don't achieve success here.
Recall, on March 6, hundreds of villagers for several hours blocked the Ohanavan-Ushi road and demanded to stop construction of the hydroelectric power station, which they claim will deprive them of irrigation water. The protestors say the power plant will consume so much water from the Aparan reservoir that that their gardens and yards will dry up. Their protest succeeded in the removal of the construction equipment from the site.