Armenian environmental activists decline a proposal to meet with prime minister Tigran Sargsyan

YEREVAN, March 25. / ARKA /. Armenian environmental activists have declined a proposal to meet with prime minister Tigran Sargsyan on Tuesday, saying they could meet with him a few days later on condition that the meeting be attended also by experts, Harutyun Berberyan, a government spokesman, told ARKA.

The chief of government staff, Vache Gabrielyan, had suggested earlier today that the environmentalists, who staged a protest against holding in Yerevan a major conference on mining sector, meet with prime minister Tigran Sargsyan to convey their concerns.

Yeghia Nersisyan from the Armenian Environmental Front said they were not going to meet with the prime minister, because "meeting with illegitimate prime minister means to legitimize the authority."

Anna Shahnazaryan from a pressure group against development of Teghut mines in northern Armenia, told ARKA that their organization will decide whether to meet with the prime minister or not only after  the conference. She recalled that after several years of struggle for Teghut they met Tigran Sargsyan and discussed this issue, but the meeting gave no results.

Yerevan is hosting a major international conference on Armenia’s mining industry, organized by the World Bank and the government of Armenia with the assistance of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation, as well as the embassies of the U.S., UK and Germany and the government of Canada.

A group of activists managed to get into Armenia Marriott hotel , the venue of the gathering  carrying  posters that read: "The World Bank plunders Armenia," "Hands off Armenia ", " We know who the owners of mines  are." -0-