Epress.am News from Armenia
This morning, approximately 1,000 residents of Haghartsin, Teghut, and Gosh villages of Tavush marz (province) closed the interstate highway in protest. The villagers demanded that they be allowed access to the Dilijan National Park to be able to cut down firewood for the coming winter. Epress.am obtained this information from Haghartsin village head Sargis Poghosyan.
According to him, the entire community’s collected firewood, collected from previous years, have already been burned. “Now, gas has become more expensive and they are restricting us from cutting wood. What are we going to do? People are nervous about the upcoming winter.”
According to the village head, the Tavush marz prosecutor and Chief of Police approached the protesting villagers to negotiate the issue, convincing the protesters that the Governor would speak to the Minister of Nature Protection and the restriction on deforestation would be removed.
The village head said, that the strict policies of the Dilijan National Park are decided by its newly appointed director. Recall, that the appointed director of the park is Republican Party (HHK) MP’s Murad Muradyan’s son, Sahak Muradyan.