EcoLur
In Martz village 180 signatures have been collected against the construction of Martziget – 1 SHP. The villagers brought the paper with the signatures to EcoLur, as they didn’t know who to hand the signatures and letter to. The matter is that Martz Village Head Robert Galstyan and “Martz Energy” LLC signed a protocol, which doesn’t reflect the opinion of villagers opposing to the SHP.
The villagers informed EcoLur that they sought to put the seal of Martz administration under their signatures, but Village Head Robert Galstyan refused to seal it. EcoLur working group met with Village head Robert Galstyan in Martz on 30 March. On EcoLur’s request to show the minutes or its copy, the village head said that he didn’t have it. In reply to the question how the minutes appeared, the village head said the minutes was brought to him a week ago for the signature. “I can’t ask from them (Marzenergy Company) and then to pass it to you. It didn’t contain either positive or negative opinions. It just says that there were different opinions, and also company proposals. Should everything said be reflected in the minutes?” the village head said, “As a villager and village head I can say that I am for it. But if the villagers oppose to it, we should speak to the villagers and not the press or Simonyan. If they agree, I’ll join them, if they don’t, I’ll again join them.”
A villager present at the meeting in Martz, “Who did you give a five-kilometer-long zone? Why didn’t you ask us when giving the land? So it turns out when a president is elected, we do live here, when a land area is handed to someone else, so we don’t live here, we are not locals? Why didn’t you allow to take part in the tender?”
Village Head: There were unused land areas, which were sold in the tender.
Villager: No tender was held.
Village Head: There was one and land areas were changed to energy significance.
Villager: This is a threat for us, our water is taken. What should we do?
After the meeting the villagers decided to collect signatures under a protest. We would like to draw attention to the fact that on the day of the public hearings on 12 March “Martzenergy” LLC Director Liparit Simonyan stated in reply to EcoLur’s question, “Today the minutes won’t be drawn up.” A question arises what kind of text the village head has signed. It’s unknown to any of the hearing participants, either villagers or EcoLur working group.
The video recording of the public hearings shows that all the participants of the hearings and villagers were opposing to the project. Only “Martzenergy” LLC Director Liparit Simonyan and Lori Regional administration representative (name not known) supported the project. Consequently, the village head signed illegal minutes, while his refusal to seal under the letter with villagers’ signatures in the sign of the protest, shows his direct interest in the project. Thus, village head’s signature doesn’t reflect Martz villagers’ opinions and can’t figure in the minutes of the public hearings as villagers’ opinion. Hereby, the provisions of Article 10 of RA Law “On Environmental Impact Expert Assessment” have been violated.
The project doesn’t reflect real risks, it has no clause on the impact of village welfare, it doesn’t reflect social risks – depriving people from gorge ecosystem, where the Martz village flows, it doesn’t reflect impact on the drainage basin of the territory, which is already exposed to the heavy impact of Martziget – 2 SHP and territory biodiversity. It doesn’t say what are flora and fauna species and in which part of Martz river ecosystem these species may be undermined to extinction.
This the project contradicts with the villagers’ intention to develop rural tourism in Martz village, as the village has favorable climatic conditions, landscape, absence of ecologically harmful enterprises near the village. The requirements of Article 5 of RA Law “On Environmental Impact Expert Assessment” have been not complied with by almost all clauses.
All this gives grounds for the negative opinion on Martziget – 1 SHP.
April 04, 2013 at 11:13