People in Armenia protest, again!

/By AzerTac/

By Laman Sadigova

Dozens of people in the Armenian capital Yerevan have taken part in protest against the local glass making company demanding their wages.

The Glass World Company, located in the town of Byureghavan in Armenia`s central Kotayk province, owes its over 300 employees 4 to 6 months` salaries. The workers have repeatedly protested the plant, demanding repayment of their back wages.

This time, the workers held a protest action on in front of the Armenian government building.

One of the protesters told local media that the plant director told the workers about his unwillingness to pay salaries before the New Year.

“In the Presidential Palace we were told to return to Byureghavan where the director will respond to us. The director has still promised to give a concrete answer in several days. We don’t quite believe this since earlier he also promised to pay before December 15 but never did that,” the worker told Armenian media.

Last time the workers demanded their salaries in August. The head of the company’s Legal Department, Armen Torosyan, then stated that the company will pay the salaries by late August. He said that the company’s debts have accumulated because the exporters to Russia themselves owe the plant due to difficulties with selling products in Russia. The former Soviet nation still has close links with Russia.

Armenia is now experiencing difficulties in almost every sphere of life as the country’s economy is weak. The government hardly does anything to improve the situation while the population is starving, buried in poverty and lawlessness.

The unemployment rate has reached great scales in this poor post-Soviet country, as well as big enterprises and companies are closing. The newly adopted 2016 public budget of Armenia has also left no hope for social welfare next year because of its high deficit rate - 3 percent.

The landlocked country has faced economic isolation since the closure of its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan, due to the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.