Blogger Tigran Kocharyan wrote on his Facebook page, “After googling hydroelectric power plants, I found the following picture – the hotel of Yenokavan and an Azeri flag blowing in front of it. What is this about, who knows? P.S. I will upload the updates here; I hope the flag is not there anymore, I am just curious what the name of the director at the time was.”
One of Armenian news websites wrote on the same subject that this resort belonged to Artak Chibukhchyan, the owner of the Future Tour travel agency, and added, “Artak Chibukhchyan has another business besides the hotel, it is ‘environmental protection,’ in particular, he was one of the most active protesters – one may say, the instigator – against building a hydroelectric power plant in the region of Tavush, along with ‘environmentalists’ who have become known to us recently. Such people are behind environmentalists and the real face and goals of environmentalists and the real picture of their activities have been revealed once again – it turns out that one can wage an active social ‘struggle’ for the sake of grants gotten from different countries, but if we find out one day that Turkey and Azerbaijan are among these countries, we will not be surprised.” We called on the phone number of the Future Tour company, which we found on the internet. Irina who is responsible for the public relations of the Future Tour company and is Artak Chibukhchyan’s wife spoke to us. She said that flags of different countries were hung in front of the resort 2 years ago. According to our reliable information, the Azerbaijani flag was hung in front of the Future Cowsheds resort complex located on the territory of Yenokavan, next to Getahovit, not 2, but 3 years ago.
During a conversation with us, Irina confirmed that there was a connection between the interview given by Artak Chibukhchyan to one of the news websites against building a small hydroelectric power plant called Khachaghbyur-2 on the territory of Getahovit and the
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appearance of the resort complex’s picture with the Azerbaijani flag on the internet, saying, “You can surf the web, if his interview appears there, then his [Artak Chibukhchyan’s, V. S.] bio appears as an Azerbaijani spy, you are a journalist, you can conduct your investigation.”
Let us add that as a result of the struggle between the residents of Getahovit and environmentalists, the construction of the small hydroelectric power plant has been suspended for now. The Trchkan environmental initiative made a request in writing to Aram Harutyunyan, the Minister of Nature Protection, in which it informed along with asking questions to the minister, “Megaenergy LLC builds the Khachaghbyur-2 small hydroelectric power plant on the territory of two state national parks – Ijevan and Arjatkhleni – however, the 27th page of the environmental part of the Khchaghbyur-2 small hydroelectric power plant reads, ‘There are no protected areas on the construction site of the hydroelectric power plant.’”
Armen Ghularyan, the governor of Tavush, applied to the administration of Getahovit some 10 days ago asking to provide land for the construction of the Khachaghbyur small hydroelectric power plant by Megaenergy LLC on the Pagh Jur tributary of the Aghstev River.
Let us inform that the construction of the small hydroelectric power plant has been carried out without the Getahovit community’s provision of land, permission of construction and public hearings among the residents, a set of environmental laws have been violated.
Voskan SARGSYAN
