Home / Armenia / Yerevan Kiosk Owners Protest City Decision. City Council Members Suggest They Contact Levon Ter-Petrossian

Yerevan Kiosk Owners Protest City Decision. City Council Members Suggest They Contact Levon Ter-Petrossian

Several kiosk owners were gathered outside Yerevan City Hall early Monday morning, protesting the city’s decision to dismantle their stalls.

Heritage Party MPs Styopa (Stepan) Safaryan, Anahit Bakhshyan and Armen Martirosyan had gone inside city hall for explanations regarding this matter.

The Epress.am correspondent on the scene reported that while the MPs were speaking with the mayor inside the building, protestors outside were able to call architect Levon Igityan and composer Martin Vardazaryan, Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) members who had just come from a City Council meeting inside the building, to come speak with them.

An older protester, one of the vendors, asked Igityan whether he was aware that the city intended to dismantle the small kiosks scattered around the Armenian capital. Igityan said he was aware that “there has to be law and order in the city and when workplaces are reduced, then, in a civilized manner, [new] workplaces have to be established.”

“I haven’t come to argue; I am stating my opinion. In the capital, everything has to have an appropriate appearance,” he said.

The kiosk owners didn’t seem too happy with this response, stating that in that case, the mayor could’ve said “make the kiosks beautiful” but don’t dismantle them.

Igityan informed the protestors that a new person today was appointed to the role of Yerevan’s chief designer to solve these issues. Then, one of the older kiosk owners, addressing Igityan, said:

“Initially, we had the newspaper stalls, yeah? Now those newspaper stalls have become ‘an everything stall.’ I went and asked, why aren’t you touching these? He says those belong to [Armenian President] Serzh [Sargsyan’s] son-in-law,” he said, not explaining who he asked and who provided such an answer.

Igityan responded, “They’re lying. I know for sure that that’s a lie.” The vendor insisted, “I asked a thousand [people] — they’re not lying.” Igityan once again said he knew for sure that it was lie, referring to the stalls belonging to Sargsyan’s son-in-law.

Martin Vardazaryan, in turn, said all this was being done intentionally — to “turn the people against them.” When Vardazaryan asked who would want it to be bad for the people, those gathered said in unison, “the mayor.”

“Where did all this start from? When [first president of Armenia and head of the opposition Armenian National Congress] Levon Ter-Petrossian was saying, get a loan from your neighbors, your relatives, and live,” Vardazaryan told the protestors.

“It was good that he said that — at the time we could take out loans, but what should we do now?” responded one middle-aged woman.

Protestors continued to direct questions to Vardazaryan: “Where is the Monument park? Why did they build a hotel? Where is the Arabkir park? You are [members of] the Council, why don’t you say anything?”

In response to the questions, Vardazaryan again recalled the Republic of Armenia’s first president: “Ask Levon Ter-Petrossian that question.”

“Go ask [former president Robert] Kocharian and Serzh [Sargsyan], you understand who to ask?” retorted one of the kiosk owners.

The altercation soon ended, the City Council members left and the Heritage Party MPs came out of the building.

“Tomorrow or the day after we’ll ask that a few of your representatives establish a delegation that will represent all your groups and then a discussion will be appointed. We, of course, attempted to convince [the mayor] that until the discussion, no action be taken against anyone’s kiosk. Mr. mayor, of course, didn’t make a promise, let me honestly say; however, we have to accelerate [our actions] and during that discussion try to convince [the city not to dismantle the kiosks],” Heritage Party MP Styopa Safaryan, summarizing the outcome of their meeting, informed protestors.