Suren Khachatryan, the governor of Syunik threatened Mariam Sukhudyan, an activist of the environmentalists’ group that visited Kajaran two days ago, “to do something bad”, if she didn’t stop the struggle against the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine. Environmentalist Yeghia Nersisyan told about this during a meeting with journalists at “Urbat” (Friday) club today.
Let us mention that according to the Cabinet decision, 600 ha territory of the villages in the vicinity of Kajaran was declared of public interest and given to the Combine for exploiting the mine. Rafik Atayan, the headman of Kajaran, who both resigned from the office of headman and returned the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) card, was joined by environmentalists.
Yeghia Nersisyan assured that the governor of Syunik had threatened him too, “Although the villagers took to the streets in Kajaran a few months ago to stop tractors, the governor said why he had not been informed to come and struggle too, whereas the governor himself had ordered to bring those tractors there. We have prepared videos on all this, they will appear on the internet soon.” According to the spokesman, the governor received them as an enemy in Kajaran, “The residents of Kajaran resisted the governor boldly, which was not the case before. The residents of Kajaran called themselves courageous residents of Kajaran.”
Termine Yenokyan, the representative of the “EcoLur” NGO, said that the villagers were persistent and they didn’t have an intention to give ground.
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Tigran Khzmalyan, a member of the initiative group of the “Sardarapat” movement, added that they were not against exploiting mines in general, but those mines were used by the current government and all the money went into their pocket, “Suren Khachatryan orients himself in Marriot better than in his own village. He didn’t even know the road leading to Kajaran, as it took him long to take part in the meeting with villagers on Friday.” Tigran Khzmalyan gave importance to the fact that the very youth, whose future they tried to rob these days, stood up to the officials, “They pick our pocket, the pocket of our children.”
Anush KHECHOYAN
