Epress.am News from Armenia
Work to remove the pipelines along the Noragavit–Ashtarak Highway carried out for several months by some unknown company has turned into a mass destruction of trees, coordinator of the Environmental Public Alliance Silva Adamyan informed Epress.am.
Inhabitants of the Yerevan district of Noragavit told the Epress.am correspondent who went to the scene that a company, the representatives of which don't identify themselves, without a permit are using a tractor to dig up and remove the several-kilometer-long pipeline coming from Masis. Now they have moved on to the plots of land cultivated over many years.
According to the residents, the plots of land that had served as a garbage dump in the past were turned into green spaces, but now, without any proper documents, unknown individuals are destroying that which they cultivated for years.
One of the residents, who didn't identify himself, told the Epress.am correspondent that the gardens, in any case, had to be removed, but representatives of the Asian Development Bank have pledged to pay them compensation — they even came and counted the trees, so that they can then deal with the issue of compensation.
"We were told that they would begin to make compensation payments by June or July, since the North-South Road Corridor is going to pass through here. Now the cart came before the horse: before giving [us] the compensation, another company came and without a decision is turning the area into ruins — [if] there are no trees, there is no compensation. We have one demand: if a road is being built, we are more than happy for Armenia's development, but let them compensate for the people's work. Let them see that the money has been transferred, but we have not been given a single dram. Instead, they've brought some unknown person to destroy, completely demolish an entire green space, and be done with it," he said.
Residents said they will hold a protest rally on June 18 and in no way will they allow this work to continue.
Note, at the time of the Epress.am correspondent's arrival, work was suspended. As the work day was over, Epress.am was unable to get tin touch with any state departments to determine who is implementing this work.