Surveying works underway in Armenia’s Kirants

PanARMENIAN.Net - Surveying works are underway in the Armenian village of Kirants in the northern Tavush province that will be affected hardest by the Armenian government’s decision to cede several local border areas to Azerbaijan.

People engaged on the scene say they are working on the construction of the bypass road, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reports.

The area is one of four border territories which Yerevan has controversially agreed to give up as part of what it calls a demarcation of local sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Unlike several other Tavush villages affected by the territorial concession, Kirants would lose not only agricultural land but also some of its houses and a key bridge connecting it to the rest of the country. This is why it has been the epicenter of protests in Tavush against the planned land handover.

The demarcation process in and around Kirants was suspended on May 7 as the protest leader, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, and his supporters marched to Yerevan to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation. Pashinyan’s government announced its resumption on Wednesday night following another border protocol signed by deputy prime ministers of the two South Caucasus states. It said Baku will gain control of the four areas, including “the most sensitive Kirants section,” even though “some details there still require further clarification.”

Police have blocked the roads leading to the village since May 19.