Epress.am News from Armenia
Residents of 7 rural communities of Aragatsotn marz (province) today at another one of their protests decided to block the main road passing by the villages of Ohanavan and Ushi, as well as the road leading to the site where the hydroelectric power station is to be built, near the villages of Karbi and Ohanavan. This was conveyed to Epress.am by Ushi resident Lena Petrosyan.
2:10 pm: Villagers have blocked the Ohanavan-Ushi road for almost two hours now and are not allowing cars to pass.
Petrosyan said that the small number of police officers were unable to disperse the protesting villagers, after which additional officers were called to the scene.
"And the 02 [regular police], and the red berets [riot police] — they brought them all. There are more police officers than civilians. The marzpet [regional governor] just came. He spoke with the villagers, who said they don't believe him and demanded that the pipe be immediately removed from the site of the hydroelectric station, after which the marzpet left," she said.
12:33 pm: According to Petrosyan, the villagers have declared a labor strike, and joining the men in protest have been women and school-age children, who are currently rushing to the site of the protest.
Villagers are angered by the fact that RA Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Territorial Administration Armen Gevorgyan did not fulfill his promise and didn't meet with them personally to become acquainted with their concerns.
"On March 14, the people came out again, waited, then were told the meeting will not take place; they were promised that Gevorgyan would definitely come at the start of this week — again we were deceived. Now people are angry and are gathering from the villages to block the road, but police officers are not letting us," said Petrosyan.
The villager claims that as of 11:30 am there were 400 people gathered, and the influx of people continues.
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.
Because of villagers' demands, those carrying out construction were forced to remove some of their equipment. According to Petrosyan, however, construction work resumed after that.