Protesters in Armenia again block highways
By Rashid Shirinov
Anti-government protests stopped traffic on the Yerevan-Ijevan highway near the Armenian village of Haghartsin on September 18.
Protesters from the Tavush region blocked the highway in an attempt to meet with Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan, shamshyan.com agency reported. A similar situation on the same stretch of the road occurred on August 4.
The demonstrators were protesting against the government decision, which left the population without firewood. The police forbid people to carry firewood from the forest to use as fuel.
The protest resulted in traffic jams stretched for several kilometers. Soon, the police arrived at the scene for negotiations with protesters. They promised that on Monday this issue will be discussed at the Dilijan Prosecutor's Office and will be resolved.
The protesters threatened to continue to disrupt traffic until the government agrees to find a proper solution for their plight.
Armenians often resort to this kind of protest in order to draw attention of state officials to the problems of ordinary population and arbitrariness of local authorities.
This July, residents of Astghadzor village in Gegharkunik region blocked the road leading from Yerevan to the occupied Karabakh.
As it turned out, the villagers were deprived of not only irrigation water, but also of drinking water for a long time.
“We have repeatedly raised this issue but nothing is done… I won’t go there [to the villagers] and won’t say anything to anyone, because each time we promise and don’t fulfill the promise,” Head of the village Robert Khachatryan told reporters.
Another incident took place this May, when residents of Ijevan city in Tavush region in protest blocked the interstate road M4. There were two reasons of the protest: bad road conditions in the region and the decision of the Ijevan authorities to ban street vending.
The protesters noted that the asphalt surface of the road passing through Tavush region is in bad condition, due to which drivers have major financial losses.
"People hardly harvest herbs in the mountains for sale, but they are banned of this. They have no other alternative but to leave the country. You need to create opportunities so that the people could survive," said one of the protesters.
Ordinary Armenians continue to address the government through such protest actions, however, this does not work. The officials sometimes come on the scene, make false promises in order to calm people down, but the problems mostly remain unsolved.
This shows that the current Armenian government only cares about its well-being, but problems of the country's population are the issue of secondary importance.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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