Bus drivers go on strike in Armenia

On July 11, in the Kotaik Region of Armenia, bus drivers of the "King de Luxe" Company, serving routes of Yerevan-Abovyan and Charentsavan-Yerevan, went on strike. 80 drivers of 40 buses left their routes.

According to the drivers, for six months, their work has been unfavourably affected by charitable minivans, belonging to Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the Party of "Prosperous Armenia" (PPA), which offer free transportation of passengers on the routes, coincided with their ones.

According to Arthur Dallakyan, Director of "King de Luxe", he fully supports the drivers, since they "cannot buy fuel and carry home at least 1000 drams." According to Arthur Dallakyan, the action contradicts the Armenian Law "On charity" and is not officially registered, and therefore, it is unclear how it can be called a charity.

The Company's representative has reported that they had already appealed to the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition in connection with "the so-called free charitable route", the "tert.am" reports.

Vage Ovanisyan, the coordinator of the programmes of the "Gagik Tsarukyan" Charity Foundation, the deputy of the National Assembly from the PPA, said: "The routes will continue to operate in compliance with the law. The 'Gagik Tsarukyan' Foundation holds charity actions across the country, and the programme of free routes will continue to operate, and, in that sense, there are no debates."

Vage Ovanisyan states that the existence of charitable free minivans is not connected with any issues of political or personal nature, the Armenian Office of "Radio Freedom" reports.