Residents of the Shenavan village of Aparan had gathered in front of the government building today with signs reading "Don't take our mountain", "Mountains are ours".
They are concerned over not being able to raise cattle because according to the 2005 resolution of the government, the districts that have lands that are not adjunct to the administrative borders will be handed to the districts that are adjunct to the administrative borders. The resolution was put into action a couple of days ago.
"We have one administrative region and the other 6 are separate from us. We stay on 668 hectares of land where it is impossible to raise cattle. That mountain has been with us for 200 years and now they want to hand it over to the Vardenut village," said head of the Shenavan Shenavan village Arthur Ghazaryan.
Let us mention that there are 400 economices and 2,000 residents in the village. "They are depriving us of raising cattle,. It's better for them to get rid of the village. This is how we manage to raise the family and earn a living. We don't know what we're going to do now," said resident of Shenavan Zohrab Ateyan.
The residents of Shenavan use the water coming from Mount Aragats and are concerned that they may no longer have water if the mountain is given to the residents of Vardenut.
The protesters were received by head of the government's department of citizens' reception and appeals Alexander Ghazaryan who advised them to write a letter to Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan on behalf of the village head and villagers.
But that didn't encourage the villagers that much and they supposed that the issue will remain unsolved.
