EcoLur
Fioletovo villagers are asking Nature Protection Minister Aramayis Grigoryan to help them and not to allow the development of Fioletovo gold mine. Village representative Vasily Desyatov passed the letter signed by over 140 villagers to the Ministry. The letter says, “To Nature Protection Minister Aramayis Grigoryan
Dear Mr. Grigoryan
The residents of Fioletovo Village are asking for your help. Our villagers are the only purely Russian religious people in Armenia. Many tourists from different countries of the world have visited to enjoy this site. They admire with our modest and diligent villagers. We mainly deal with agriculture and husbandry. Currently an oligarch intends to open a mine in a distance of 100 meters from the village and to develop a mine there. He wants to lay a road through the village to transport the production, which will result in eliminating our land areas used for pasturing cattle. Here we and our ancestors have lived for 200 years. We will have to leave the village, as we will lose our cattle, as there will be no place for pasture and our products, which we are fed with, support our families and supply the country with cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables, as well as dairy products.
We are begging and asking for your help and assistance in the preservation of our religious and purely Russian village in Armenia. All the villagers oppose to the mining.
With best regards
Fioletovo Villagers
Signatures attached.”
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Below is the conversation between Nature Protection Ministry employee and the representative in Governmental building N 3.
Desyatov: The life in Fioletovo is destroying. The villagers asked me to pass the letter to Nature Protection Minister Aramayis Grigoryan. Can I hand it in person?
Nature Protection Ministry employee: No, give the letter to me, I will hand it.
Desyatov: Please, hand it as soon as possible.
Nature Protection Ministry employee: Sure, I will hand it today, but the reply will be available only after the New Year.
In his interview with EcoLur Desyatov said, "I am the resident of Fiolotovo Village, and currently I am living in Yerevan. Yesterday evening Fiolotovo villagers called me and said that a gold mine is going to be opened there. The main issue they are concerned with is the loss of pastures and water. The villagers have collected signatures and asked me to hand it to the proper bodies. All the villagers unanimously oppose to the opening of this mine. I have worked in the mine, Armanis, and I know to what extent it’s dangerous for my health.
EcoLur: Were any public hearings held in the village?
Desyatov: The hearings were held, however, nobody knew about it and nobody was aware of it. They (the organizers) wanted to organize voting. But the villagers said that they wouldn’t vote, we all oppose to it. The whole village will be destroyed, if the mine is opened. The life there and the existence of our village is undermined. Several villagers want to apply to the Russian Ambassador and ask him to influence on the Armenian Government not to allow this mining project.
December 23, 2014 at 18:00