Yerevan residents protest against cutting off housing and communal services

Residents of Yerevan have gathered near the government building with a demand to solve the problem of disconnecting utilities for non-payment. Due to epidemic restrictions, local residents are without livelihood, Aik Barsegyan, an activist, has stated.

On April 28, Mr Barsegyan held a protest against the decisions of the Armenian Government in front of the government building in Yerevan. According to his story, he went out to the protest rally to oppose the inefficient government's ruling; and the reason was in cutting off electricity and gas in homes of local residents for non-payment of the bills.

"Authorities' decisions are so formal that the problems are not solved, but aggravated even more. Because of the state of emergency and quarantine, people are in a difficult situation; they are starving and are unable to pay the bills," Aik Barsegyan said during his protest, which was broadcast live by the PARA TV.

One of the protesters has stated that he has no income under the quarantine, but electricity and gas were cut off, despite the fact that he has a small child at home. "Let government know what conditions citizens are in; maybe they'll take reasonable," he said.

The action ended at about 2:00 p.m., after which Barsegyan stated that this protest was the warning one; and its participants give one day to the government to take appropriate measures and solve the issue. According to Barsegyan, if the government fails to make concessions, a lot more people will come out to a protest rally.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 28, 2020 at 10:26 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.