Over 300 Residents of Vardenut Village Block Main Road in Protest on Yerevan-Vanadzor Highway

A tense situation has developed in the Aragatsotn province for over an hour now. According to Shamshyan.com, more than 300 residents of Vardenut village have blocked the main road in the administrative territory of Apna village on the Yerevan-Vanadzor highway.

The villagers stated, "We have been forced to take this extreme step because the authorities, including the government, have been placating us for a long time, and as a result, our village, which was still known during the Soviet years, is on the verge of being emptied. A certain 'RIT' LLC has decided to take all the fertile lands of the village for pennies, claiming that it is creating an eco-village, where there will also be skiing and snowboarding facilities, including a cable car, but it is a fact that the village is on the brink of emptiness. Who has seen such decisions made without discussing the matter with the villagers and locals? As the saying goes, 'the village may stand, but timber will break,' and that's what it’s come to now. We will stand our ground until the end because, with their inhumane actions, one of the well-known villages is standing on the brink of being emptied. This once-flourishing village known during the Soviet period, which even after the collapse of the USSR had the entire population cherished like the apple of their eye, is now facing disaster due to some 'RIT' decision. We are in favor of economic development and tourism growth; our struggle is not political, we are fighting to preserve what our ancestors passed down to our generations. We will stand our ground until the end and we assert that we are fighting to save the village and not just the village, but also Armenia, because if the ravenous 'RIT' can do this in our village, we are sure that other villages will also be emptied like a boomerang.

Currently, neither the regional administration nor the government has seen fit to arrive here to meet with us, but we have no expectations; we are fighting to save the village and, indeed, Armenia itself.