It is a “revolutionary situation” in Artik

The first secretary of the Communist Party alerts that the establishment is getting ready for the election fraud in Artik

“Artik weeps”, expressed to “Aravot” his displeasure and impressions first secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of Armenia Ruben Tovmasyan yesterday – he went to Artik for the weekend in the framework of the party activities, talked to people and learned about the everyday life and problems of the Artik residents. Comrade Tovmasyan recalls that Artik was one of the prospering places in Armenia in the Soviet times – the local residents not only took care of their problems, but also contributed to building other towns of the USSR. “Today an Artik resident is in a bad condition himself, there is no construction of apartment buildings at all, the youth has basically emigrated and the majority are old people who spend the whole day recalling the past and condemning the hopeless future”, said the first secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of Armenia. The main place that employed the Artik residents was the stone quarry; the glory of the Artik “tuf” stone was spread all over the USSR, but the stone quarry changing hands has not been exploited for the past few years and cannot meet the demands of the labor market. “Aragats” pioneer camp that is also idle and disowned also provided employment. The local residents expressed their concerns to the Communist Party leader that some people are registered in their apartments. The officials have not answered the following questions of the residents; who are those people and what those registrations aim at. There are rumors that the goal is to use “false residents” in the electoral district. People registered in many places will be able to vote several times. The retired complain that they cannot get a penny out of their meager pensions, because they just sign and pay the money for different “bur-in-the-throat” taxes, water, land, electricity etc. People complained about the lack, the price and the quality of weed and pest-killer chemicals, about the supervision of which, by the way, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture and their subordinates make statements every day in the framework of their PR-actions; they say as if the conditions of the agricultural loans are affordable, but they are not really invested to develop agriculture, but to contribute to the people’s not-starving-to-death and paying percentages in return for those. Taking all this into consideration, Tovmasyan was particularly shocked, because the people wore rags remained from the Soviet period as clothing. I want to add on my behalf that such situation exists not only in the town of Artik, but also in all the settlements in the region.