EcoLur
Meghradzor Village Head Karlen Hovhannisyan proceeded to the policy of open pressure on public in regard with the construction of a cyanic plant by Meghradzor Gold Company in Meghradzor Village. Reminder: Meghradzor villagers collected about 600 signatures against the cyanic plant and handed them to the administration of RA President during the protest demonstration held in Yerevan on 25 January.
On April 6 a group of journalists and experts in industrial chemistry arrived in Meghradzor at the invitation of a group of villagers opposing to the construction of a cyanic plant. When entering Meghradzor we learnt that people have gathered by the rural administration building. As soon as we got off the car, Village Head Karlen Hovhannisyan made a speech, where he accused EcoLur of libel and read the announcement circulated by us, “On Aril 6 Meghradzor villagers will hold a protest demonstration against the cyanic production in Meghradzor village. The villagers have heard that the Nature Protection Ministry is going to issue a positive opinion to the cyanic production project submitted by “Meghradzor Gold” Company. Meghradzor villagers are going to express their protest and expect for the participation of the mass media. “EcoLur” Informational NGO President Inga Zarafyan, the greens Union Chairman Hakob Sanasaryan and “Environmental Academy” NGO Chairman Greta Gabrielyan will take part in this protest demonstration. Those who want to take part in the protest demonstration may contact on the phone at 091 87 68 76 (Garsevan). Cars will head for Meghradzor at 11:00 on 06.04.2013 near Conservatory building.”
Karlen Hovhannisyan demanded from us in strong language to leave the village. Immediately after he finished his speech, a skirmish began between Meghradzor Gold Company employees and those opposing, which turned into a clash. The Village Head stated that Meghradzor Gold Company refused from the project and won’t permit a cyanic plant to be located in the territory of their village. Environmental Academy” NGO Chairman Greta Gabrielyan finally managed to have a speech on the topic of a cyanic plant.
It remains unclear why to send away fellow thinkers if both the village head and the public representatives who arrived there opposed to a cyanic plant? If Meghradzor Gold Company intends to extract gold in other way or place, why it didn’t call back the cyanic plant from the Nature Protection Ministry? The website of Nature Protection Ministry, http://www.mnp.am/?p=315 displays only cyanic plant project and nothing else. With a reference to the Nature Protection Ministry on providing documentation and opinion on the project, we were told that the opinion on the project is in preparation stage.
Under the project, the cyanic plant should be constructed only in a distance of 500 meters from the settlements and land areas, next to Meghradzor River, a tributary to the Marmarik River and from there water is pumped for the irrigation needs of Meghradzor and other villages. Meghradzor is included in the recreation and rest zone, where numerous centers and hotels are located, summer complexes, including those designed for children. The ore in Meghradzor is already mined in opencast manner. According to our data, every day 26 carriages of ore are sent to Ararat factory from Mdeghradzor, which contain over 2000 tons of ore. Dumps are left in the territory of the village, which contain arsenic and mercury (Sh. Amiryan, A. Karapetyan, “Mineral-geochemical characteristics of ore in Meghradzor gold mine”, Bulletin of Academy of Sciences of Armenian SSR, XVII, N2, 1964). By the way, the project doesn’t say anything about these highly toxic elements.
April 08, 2013 at 12:09