A number of drivers of public transport minibuses in Yerevan went on strike on Tuesday to protest against the recent rise in fuel prices in Armenia. The drivers argued that the price hike decreased their earnings significantly as they still have to pay a fare of 12-15 000 drams to the \u201croute owners\u201d daily, no matter whether they go to work or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main problem is the increase in fuel prices. What can I demand of the route owner? He hasn\u2019t increased the fare, the route works normally,\u201d one of the protesters told a group of Yerevan Municipality officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to spend 6000 drams on fuel and drive 5 rounds; now we spend 8000 and drive only 4. Not only that, but the the fuel quality has gone down as well,\u201d another driver complained.<\/p>\n
Henrik Navasardyan, the head of the transportation department of the Yerevan Municipality, came to the scene of the protest in the capital\u2019s Malatia-Sebastia district. \u201cYes, prices have gone up, there\u2019s no denying that. But this is no way to solve an issue,\u201d he told the protesters. He added that the issue \u201cis being discussed in the tops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several drivers told reporters that their strike had been partially agreed with the \u201croute owners;\u201d the latter have supposedly told the drivers they were allowed to take the issue to the street if they agreed to limit their demands to a decrease in fuel prices and an increase in transportation fares. \u201cThey\u2019ll never accept a lesser income, but I\u2019m the one doing the work and damaging my health. The route owners are [the municipality officers\u2019] bosses themselves – [Yerevan mayor] Taron [Margaryan], [former Parliament speaker] Galust Sahakyan, lawmakers and all sorts of KGB agents. What have they ever done for Yerevan\u2019s public transport? If they cut our daily fare, they\u2019d even be able to decrease the transport fares,\u201d one of the argued.<\/p>\n
Alik Gevorgyan, an adviser to Yerevan\u2019s mayor, urged the protesters to go back to work and promised to find a solution to the issue through discussions with the so-called route owners. \u201cI drove all day yesterday and went home with no money in my pocket. Would you go back to work the next day if you didn\u2019t get any money for an entire day\u2019s work?\u201d a driver asked Gevorgyan but received no reply from the official.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get three days off work a month and waste this time taking the vehicle for maintenance and repair, which I have to pay for myself. I repair something at least twice a month. I pay the route owner 15 000 drams everyday and am left with an income of around 3000. If I get sick and am unable to drive that day, I still have to pay this money from my own pocket,\u201d a protester said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alik Gevorgyan, an adviser to Yerevan\u2019s mayor, urged the protesters to go back to work and promised to find a solution to the issue through discussions with the so-called route owners…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[66047],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}