Residents of Gyumri Make their Voices Heard

Aired on RFL Radio Liberty on February 11, 2008 at 15:30 (segment starting at 9 minutes and 10 seconds into the broadcast)
Re: Inhabitants of Gyumri react to the anticipated rise of gas prices on April 1.


Excerpts-verbatim

First Woman: Bread is expensive! Food supplies are expensive! Gas is expensive!…
until when? Until when? It’s just not possible!...and there are no jobs!...except for a few teachers and doctors and those working in city hall, people are unemployed…
this will end up in a social uproar and the people will not stay calm like this!
People will get organized and revolt. They won’t just stand by and let them do as they please.

Reporter: You mean they won’t be patient….?

First Woman:…the cup of patience will run over and people will resort to revolution…

Second Woman: They’re killing the people…what else can you do when your children are hungry and starving…

Third Woman: There are no jobs. Show me a job, and I’ll work. If they know there are no jobs, they know that people can’t pay, why do they raise prices? People can’t buy bread…how can they raise the prices? …People will rise and say we just can’t pay…This is no place to live because there’s no leadership.

First Man: The social situation is getting more complicated; it’s terrible, especially for people in the third tier. And 70% of us are in that category…

Fourth woman: It’s been said that whatever people say, it always happens. So we expect anything to happen.

Reporter: Do you think this will bring social unrest?

Fourth woman: It could; it could. The government is after the poor people, they’re after people who can barely earn their daily bread…they’re after them…

Second Man:…this government used to criticize the ‘dark and cold’ years, that there was no electricity, no gas… But the people lived comfortably…we used gas and electricity for free. And now, this government has put the people in a vice and keeps squeezing them. I don’t know what will happen. Armenia will be empty soon… We now see everything clearly. People have no way of making a living… They (the government) go to the European Council and tell them everything is good here. Sure, it’s very good!!...
They won’t help people to progress… They are the servants of the people who elected them and not the people servants to them.