EcoLur
Another phase of tension in Qajaran Village (Syuink Region) in regard with villagers’ refusal to give their land areas to Zangezour Copper and Molybdenum Combine, under government decision 627-N dated on 28 April 2011.
On 14 December villagers beat an alarm signal to EcoLur that Village Head Rafik Atayan was taken to the police station. For several hours, there was no news from the village head, and his mobile phone was switched off. Villagers expressed their concern that the police were trying to exercise pressure on Atayan and to make him sign the agreement with ZCMC.
On the same day, Rafik Atayan returned home. In his telephone conversation with EcoLur he said he hadn’t been taken to the police station. Not going into details, he said that negotiations were conducted in regard with transfer of land, but not with the police. “It doesn’t matter, we won’t give our lands,” he said. Villagers demand to call back the government decisions, because if ZCMC proceeds to the mine development next to the village, the whole village will have to be displaced. The tense situation in Qajaran Village is reflected in new social reel “S.O.S. Qajaran: Eminent Public Domain – 2” shot early in December in Qajaram and its outskirts and in Kapan.
December 15, 2011 at 11:51