Another Signature Collecting in Martz Village (Photo)

EcoLur

The threat jeopardizing Martz Village, Lori Region, worries not only villagers, but also wide layers of civil society. “The area we are located is the home to Tumanyan. This is an invasion towards our cultural heritage, our future generations and future. We don’t want the HPP to be constructed and we won’t allow it,” told EcoLur Hasmik Evoyan, Pan-Armenian Environmental Front member, who considers herself to be a concerned citizen. She together with a group of environmental activists has organized a trip to Martz Village to support and to back the villagers.

Reminder: The villagers oppose to the construction of “Martziget-1” SHP on Martz River and have voiced their position numerous times. Nevertheless, recently it has been found out that Village Head Robert Galstyan signed a protocol, which said the villagers agreed to the construction of SHP (watch the video). The concerned environmental activists from Yerevan, Vanadzor and Alaverdi considered the main aim of their visit to make the villagers aware of their rights and the legal means for struggle.

“You have rights and you can demand…You should know that the section of society, i.e. we will keep on struggling till the very end,” said group members as soon as they reached the village. The villagers were not aware of this signed document. Villager Pargev Hakobyan, aged 21, is sure you can achieve desired results with joint efforts.

“SHP will cause damage to our nature, we want our village head to annul his signature,” said Pargev, while Flora, who lives in Vanadzor, but is concerned with the problems of Martz, mentioned, “I have looked at the map, this area is seismically unstable area. If water dried out, quakes can’t be prevented, as water ensures this stability, the rocks will get dry…I want to struggle for these things not to happen.”

“The village head was also against, but I don’t know why he did so. Maybe pressures or something like that...Maybe he is also afraid, why not,” added one of the villages, who didn’t tell her name. Meanwhile we tried to meet the village head, but he turned out not to be in the village. After his phone talk with him environmentalist Levon Galstyan said that the village head was in Ejmiadzin and said the document had been signed by 5 representatives of the Aldermen’s Council and 6 or 7 villagers, and he couldn’t remember what the document said.

“The SHP construction is a good thing, if they fulfill their promises and provide aid to the village,” said Aldermen’s Council member Gor Galstyan and said he was Village Head’s son. In reply to EcoLur’s question what would happen, if the company didn’t fulfill their promises, they would use the signed and notarially confirmed agreement against the company.

The concern of the whole village was obvious. When passing by each house we could hear villagers’ requests to help them not to have the SHP constructed. Finally, another signature collection was organized and within half an hour over 260 signatures were collected, when the village population is 760 people and the number of eligible villagers made up about 350. As a matter of fact, over the half of the population opposes to the SHP.

It should be mentioned that the document drawn up after the first signature collection with the signatures of 180 villagers, were not accepted because of wrong legal formulation.

Levon Galstyan was pleasantly surprised with the mood and willingness of the villagers. “They realize the importance and seriousness of the problem much better than us. We got convinced that the village is 100% against to the construction of SHP. There are cases when people are promised different things or intimidated or I don’t know what, but I hope that Martz villagers won’t step back,” Levon Galstyan said.

“One of the visit purposes was just the opposite: I was supposed to come and to support the villagers, but as a result, they supported us morally. We really didn’t expect such people to come, to rebel and to complain despite the fact who stand in front of them,” said Hasmik Evoyan enthusiastically.

In reply to EcoLur’s question what was eventually decided and what they were going to do next, Levon Galstyan said that the villagers had collected signatures, which should be submitted to the village head, and they will help them to file the document to proper bodies.

April 10, 2013 at 12:15