Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Territorial Administration Minister Armen Gevorgyan will not meet with the protesting residents of the seven villages in Aragatsotn Region.

The aforesaid residents have assembled in Ohanavan village, since Friday morning, to protest against the new hydroelectric power plant (HPP) being built in the region.

“Facts have emerged, and the government representative will not come today; instead, the government representatives will meet with fifteen residents from each village, on Monday and Tuesday,” Ohanavan prefect Aleksan Aleksanyan informed the protesting villagers.

He added that the deputy PM will come to listen to, and not to convince, the villagers.

These words, however, angered the villagers, who announced that they will go and block the Yerevan-Ashtarak Highway.

The police already have formed a human wall, and they do not permit the villagers to block the motorway, Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informed. The situation is tense.

As reported earlier, the residents of Ushi, Ohanavan, Artashavan, Karbi, Saghmosavan, Yerznka, and Yeghvard villages blocked the Yerevan-Aparan Highway on March 6, and demanded that the construction of the aforesaid HPP be stopped. Aragatsotn Regional Governor Sargis Sahakyan, however, assured that the HPP’s construction is not perilous. But the residents told the regional governor that they all have bank loans, and they make their living on those gardens that will dry out should the HPP be built, thus depriving them of the irrigation water for their only source of income.