Monday, February 12 2024 19:02

ArmInfo. Residents of Vardenis demand that the Armenian authorities publicly admit or deny  whether the latter have any intention to surrender their community. 

This was stated by one of the participants of the protest organized  today by residents of Vardenis and neighboring villages. Protestants  temporarily closed the road leading to Yerevan, the reason for which  was the abolition of the passport office in Vardenis, which,  according to the authorities, is due to the transition to a digital  format of services.

Residents complain that all government institutions in their area are  gradually closing, and the latter are clearly not ready for  digitalization. "If there is no intention to depopulate our city, let  them leave everything as it is and return what they took," the  protestants noted. They informed that before this, the morgue and  sanitary epidemiological station in Vardenis were closed.

Noting that they elected Nikol Pashinyan to get rid of the previous  authorities, the residents are wondering what the current prime  minister is doing now. "Will he depopulate Vardenis now? Come to our  villages!  There are 50 empty houses in each village, some of them  were left to work, and some of them moved to Yerevan. Let them leave  ours to us!," noted the participants of the protest.

After a meeting with the regional governor, the residents decided to  open the road, but on the condition that tomorrow the residents of 37  villages of the united community of Vardenis will legally formalize  their demands, after which the document will be transferred to the  National Assembly.  "We will give them a reasonable time to get a  solution for the benefit of our residents. If not, today there were  100 of us, tomorrow there could be 200 and it could reach 10,000. Let  our question be discussed and a serious answer given," said a  participant in the action. Otherwise, residents said they were ready  for a riot.

On February 9, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan announced  that the government is considering the possibility of reducing the  number of passport offices in the republic and transferring many  government services to electronic format.

Pashinyan noted that the optimization and closure of branches in a  number of cities gives rise to speculation. It happened earlier, when  the judicial department of Meghri was closed, and now, when they want  to close the passport department of Vardenis. However, according to  him, optimization will be carried out in many regions of Armenia, as  well as in Yerevan.

If it turns out that cutting down passport offices will cause  difficulties, the authorities will consider establishing mobile  offices. At the same time, the government expects that this will not  happen, since many documents can be received electronically,  including a certificate of social services number, permanent address,  etc.