Eliminating the fruit garden
Today "A1+" received an alarm that the fruit gardens in Shahumyan region of Yerevan were being demolished with bulldozers.
After the alarm, "A1+" found out that 400 ha of fruit gardens had been eliminated in the Shahumyan region for several days now.
After cutting the thick trees down, now it was time for the vineyards. One of the garden tenants Vachik Khachatryan has been cultivating his 1 ha vineyard for 19 years, but there is still a year before his leasing agreement expires.
"I used to get 15 tons of grapes from a hectare. I didn't even have any water this year," Vachik Khachatryan said.
The reason why the gardens are eliminated is because the government has sold the land before the villagers' leasing agreement expires.
"They say the molybdenum factory director purchased the land. They only come and destroy the land with a tractor without telling us," Vachik Khachatryan said.
The owner's representatives had visited the villagers last year and had warned that they had to give their lands because the garden would be eliminated in 2011, and the corresponding bodies had promised to pay for the damage caused.
"They came and prepared an inventory of how many trees each person had for compensation, but all that went down to zero," Norik Arakelyan said.
