Fires on purpose?
Environmental activists suspect that the forest fires in Dilijan are on purpose.
"In the past couple of weeks, there have been frequent alarms about large-scale fires in the forests of Dilijan. Youth who visited Haghartsin on 28 November say they noticed fires when it was getting dark and called the firefighting service.
After a couple of minutes, local correspondent Mr. Minasyan called and promised that the service would take care of the issue and that he would inform the head of the forest economy. After a while, Minasyan called the youth and started swearing, telling them that he was going to come and teach them a lesson.
When he got there, he thought the youth had already left for Yerevan, called the administration in the presence of people waiting at the central bus stop and informed that he was at the forest, the leaves were simply burning and he is putting the fire out. An hour later, the passengers coming from Ijevan to Dilijan said the forests were still burning and heading toward Haghartsin.
Citizens of Dilijan say fires break out in the forest on a daily basis. Recently, the prosecutor of Lori province visited the forests of Lori and discussed the version of fires with the purpose of concealing deforestation on purpose," as stated in the online letter.
