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Former residents of Artsvashen, a village in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province, are staging a protest in front of the government building, demanding compensation for their homes and property lost back in 1992.

They state the compensation promised to them by the government in 2009 has not been provided. The former Artsvashen residents stress they have met with the prime minister, ministers, the governor and community head, but nothing has changed.

The protesting villagers claim they currently reside in wooden houses facing collapse in various border villages, mostly in Chambarak.

“In 2009, the government made a decision to pay 6 billion drams in compensation for material losses. 708 million drams have been paid to 2,000 people so far, with each of them receiving 360,000 drams. Under both the former and current authorities, our issue wouldn’t move forward. We want to know why the issue is frozen,” said one of the protesting villagers.

Director of Artsvashen and Sons Compatriot NGO Yura Ghulyan noted that the sons of most of the protesting residents are soldiers defending Armenia’s north-eastern borders.

He said that the issue of the villagers is ignored at the moment.

“At our previous meeting with the prime minister, we agreed to meet again in 20 days, before they could consider our issue. But for some reason, that meeting didn’t take place. Now the people have gathered here hoping for a meeting,” he stressed, adding they are not demanding to be paid the whole sum at once, but are urging for a step-by-step solution to their problem.