Protesters unblock highway: ‘If necessary, we close it again for 4 days’

As was reported earlier, residents of seven villages in Aragatsotn province of Armenia blocked today Yerevan-Aparan highway, demanding that the construction of a hydropower plant on Aparan-Yerevan canal be stopped. They say that after the hydropower plant’s construction, they will be deprived of irrigation water. “10 thousand hectares of land will become arid,” farmers told reporters.

Aragatsotn regional governor Sargis Sahakian spoke to the protesters. He promised that construction equipment will be removed.

“Unless they remove the equipment, we will close the road again for 4 days. All the same, when the hydropower plant is built, we won’t be able to cultivate our gardens,” a protester said.

Although the governor said that construction work has been ceased, farmers claim that new pipes have been laid.