YEREVAN. – Ruling Republican Party of Armenia MP Vardan Ayvazyan dismissed the news, according to which it is because of his company that the residents of Tabatskuri village—in the predominantly-Armenian-populated Samtskhe-Javakheti Province of Georgia—are not given a permit to catch fish in the village lake.

“It’s stupidity,” the MP told Armenian News-NEWS.am. “There is no such thing.”

The issuing of this fishing license to the villagers is delayed for unknown reasons.

The Georgian government had granted solely to the company belonging to Ayvazyan a twenty-year permit to make use of this lake.

The Georgian law-enforcement bodies prohibit the villagers from fishing in the lake.

On August 10, a clash had even occurred between the villagers, the police, and the staff of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia.

Ayvazyan, on the other hand, had denied the reports that the villagers were prohibited to fish in the lake.