“The mine is of no benefit to us. The benefit goes to those removing the ore. You or I will get nothing. Who take our opinions into account?” exclaims village resident Albert Tamaryan.
This concerns us given that 610 people work at the Alaverdi smelter. If it closed, the impact would be devastating since we cannot offer alternative employment.
Kimprom chemical plant workers were back on the street today outside the Lori Provincial Governor’s Office in Vanadzor to demand they be paid nine months worth of back wages.
A public hearing regarding a new mine proposed by Vallex Group took place today at the Alaverdi Municipality but broke down after several heated exchanges between residents of the affected villages and company representatives.
Mining, in no instance, is conducive for us,” said Paranyan, adding that many residents spend twelve hours a day away from home working at the Teghout mine.
Before this morning’s failed attempt by Kimprom factory workers to close a section of highway linking Vanadzor and Alaverdi to raise the issue of back wages owed them, the workers had again met with Lori Governor Artur Nalbandyan outside his office.
Large numbers of police are currently preventing Kimprom chemical plant factory workers,demanding they be paid back wages, from closing off a stretch of the roadway between Vanadzor and Alaverdi in Armenia.
Harout argues that the mine will not only disturb the ecological balance of the forest but that local residents will pay a heavy price later on as well.
Valeri Mejlumyan, chairman of the Vallex Group of Companies that runs the Teghout mine in Armenia’s Lori Province, asked a bunch of local community leaders last April for permission to conduct geological studies in the Tzaghkashat-Akhetk mine site.
Most of the tree saplings planted had withered under the relentless summer heat.
Kimprom factory workers have been gathering outside the Lori Provincial Administration in Vanadzor on and off for over a year to demand back wages.
Sadly today, the lake located three kilometers southeast of Dsegh village in the north of Armenia, is losing water.
Trucks transporting felled young hornbeam trees are freely leaving the forest in Ahnidzor.
As of yesterday, there were two registered candidates running in the June 7 mayoral election in Alaverdi – Artur Abgaryan and Karen Paremuzyan.
The two men are upbeat about the future. They say that the old orchards are being restore and that the only impediment are the toxic wastes being dumped in the Debed River by the Akhtala mining company
Exhausts poured from the Armenian Copper Programme’s copper and molybdenum processing plant in Alaverdi from 11am to 3pm today, blanketing a number of neighborhoods in white smoke.
Tzavaryan, who has pumped close to $780,000 into the renovation project over the past fifteen years, told Hetq that the important work to stabilize the edifice had been accomplished.
250 of the 500 males screening for prostate cancer were diagnosed with prostate adenoma.
After firing thirteen employees at Armenia’s Akhtala Mining and Processing Plant for filing a petition for wage increases and better work safety conditions, management says it will take the workers back starting tomorrow.
The amputation of Ararat Kirakosyan’s leg was a consequence of the war.
Khachatryan later found out that the 2009 lease contracts signed between Mayor Darbinyan and Karavar-Tan was done without the council’s approval.
To get to the Sanahin and Haghpat UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Armenia, travelers are forced to drive through three dangerous tunnels on the way.
“There is a great lack of forestry professionals in Armenia. Sadly, this problem exists in all countries. Luckily, a forestry division recently opened in the Academy of Agriculture. However, dues to various reasons, most graduates prefer to go to work outside the forestry sector,” Matevosyan replied.
Father VrtanesBaghalyan, parish priest at the 6th century Odzoun church in Armenia’s Lori Province says that while the company responsible for renovating the famous edifice has done a good job, the removal of rainwater remains a problem.
Of the fifty people who showed up at yesterday’s public hearing regarding the proposed 2015 budget of Vanadzor, Armenia’s third largest city, thirty were municipal employees.
In the last month, Teghout CJSC has fired 38 workers at the mining operation’s construction unit.
Of the 11 manholes on Pghndzagortsner St. in the S/Sarahart district in Alaverdi, 6 are missing covers: the sewer smell emanating from them makes it impossible to walk on certain parts of the road.
Drinking water not supplied to the entire village, no natural gas supply system, and an impassable road are just some of the problems faced by residents of the village of Katchatchkout in Armenia's Lori Province.
Yesterday, Armenian Minister of Nature Environment Aramayis Grigoryan toured Lori Province on a fact-finding mission.
It seemed like all the residents of Alaverdi, a town of 15,000 in Armenia’s northeast Lori Province, turned out yesterday to celebrate “Alaverdi Day”.
Workers at the financially strapped Kimprom plant again took to the streets in front of the Lori Regional Government Office in Vanadzor early today demanding to speak to presidential adviser and former energy minister Armen Movsisyan.
The coordinating committee representing Kimprom workers in Vandzor threatened to stage an open- ended strike if presidential advisor Armen Movsisyan didn’t meet with them by 10 am on June 16.
This has resulted in 100 million in unpaid wages to the plant’s 700 employees.
Demanding more than one year in back wages, some 200 Kimprom factory demonstrated outside the company’s headquarters in Vanadzor.
Head of the Tumanyan Division of the Lori Regional Police of the Republic of Armenia, Colonel Artur Harutyunyan, through his acquaintances, on June 12 asked Hetq not to publish an article about his building a house — without consulting him first.
Haghtan was once a bustling Greek-populated village of 1,000 in Armenia’s northern Lori Province.
Teghout Mayor Frunzeh Norekyan told Hetq that many of the saplings planted by the mining company have withered and died due to a lack of proper oversight.
Metal Prince Ltd. has begun to explore the re-launch of a mine in Shamlugh that once was operated by the French and then by the Soviet government until the 1930s.
Residents of Shamlugh, a town close to the Georgian border in Armenia’s northern Lori Province, are complaining that the water flowing from their faucets during the past week has been muddy and undrinkable.
“Experts say that we can evaluate the precise damage after a few days of sunny weather,
When asked by this reporter, Darbinyan said that 300 million AMD had been spent to refurbish local roads. The work, in fact, was mostly carried out by companies owned by the mayor and his brother.
Of the four candidates proposed in yesterday's local government elections, residents of the village of Lernavan in Armenia's Lori Province once again voted for the incumbent, village mayor Vachagan Vardanyan, saying that despite problems in the village, he can only do so much and the Armenian government should step in and help.
Zhora Nazloughanyan, who tends his flock of 120 sheep in Lori’s Debed village, is a dying breed.
Huge trees have sprouted on the roofs of the churches and mausoleum from lack of care; they are surrounded by bushes and are inaccessible for tourists. These marvelous historical and cultural monuments entrusted to the management of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin have been neglected for too long.
The 40.5 million AMD already allocated from Armenia’s state budget to restore and reinforce the Sanahin monastery complex has been misspent. And this squandering of tax payer money has occurred right under the nose of the Ministry of Culture.
Hetq discovered that despite the considerable budgetary resources allocated for waste management, in the city's Sanahin rural and Sanahin station districts waste disposal is only partially carried out, while there is no waste disposal at all in the Akner and Madan rural districts.
Around 300 local residents work at AMEC and Mayor Khachikyan is worried that a halt in operations will throw the community into social calamity.
The tailings dam of the Akhtala Mountain Enrichment Combinat (AMEC) is located in the aptly named "Valley of the Martyr”, nestled between the villages of Metz Ayroum and Tchotchkan in Armenia’s Lori Province.
Armenia’s northern town of Alaverdi is turning into an “open-air” garbage dump.The Debed River, flowing through Alaverdi, continues to serve as a convenient dump site for local supermarkets and stores.