Epress.am News from Armenia
Artistic Director of the State Chamber Theatre of Yerevan Ara Yernjakyan, citing health reasons, wasn’t at the press conference he called today along with Association for Human Development President and environmentalist Karine Danielyan, architect Levon Igityan and human rights campaigner Meri Khachatryan.
Just like Ara Yernjakyan, Levon Igityan also supports the building of shops in Mashtots Park authorized by Yerevan City Hall against which environmental activists have been protesting for over a week. At the same time, Igityan said that he hasn’t been to Mashtots Park and doesn’t actually know what’s going on there.
“What business is it of mine?” he said when Meri Khachatryan said that trees are being cut down in the park and all urban development norms are being breached.
During the press conference, Khachatryan was surprised that the construction work going on in the park next to the maternity hospital didn’t bother any of the hospital employees — instead, staff yesterday afternoon approached the activists and said it was their singing and dancing that was disturbing them.
“That Mr. Igityan and [Yerevan chief architect Narek] Sargsyan say let only architects speak, the rest aren’t professionals, they’re aggressive and unstable, is wrong. This approach, that a gynecologist shouldn’t speak… the first should be the gynecologist who speaks since he’s the one who sees the abnormal birth that arises out of this type of urban development. This is a general city and all of our voices must be heard,” said Karine Danielyan.
On the construction of kiosks in downtown Yerevan, Igityan recalled the situation on the street in the capital during the first few years of Armenia’s independence. “There were no shops, [only] tables set out from one end to the next. They were trading and those doing the trading were actors, doctors, architects, who had to live, and it was terrible. Then came a beautiful day — the tables were gone. I want you to take note of this evolution, of development — the tables disappeared, then came the kiosks and they were many. Haven’t you noticed the diminishing of kiosks? Tomorrow, the next day, they too will be no longer,” he said, referring to the kiosks removed from Abovyan St.
Igityan asserted, though, that the kiosks transplanted from Abovyan St. to Mashtots Park won’t remain in the park and likely will be removed within two years. Note, Yerevan City Hall has also said the shops in Mashtots Park are temporary structures.
Meri Khachatryan, in turn, suggested that Yerevan mayor Taron Margaryan can temporarily suspend construction work in the park and hold public hearings to discuss environmentalists’ proposals.
“The suggestion is the following: these kiosks easily can be moved to the pedestrian underpass [at the end of Mastots Ave. near St. Sarkis Cathedral] where no shops have been operating for 20 years already — they’ve been closed with metal bars,” she said.
She also emphasized that Yerevan municipality and the state don’t ensure their connection with the public — instead of the appropriate state agencies, police officers and police chiefs have been speaking to activists.
Igityan, however, pointed out it’s not by speaking on the street but at the drawing board that one becomes an architect. Furthermore, he cautioned against starting fights on the street.
“Seeing all this impatience and desire to start a fight, the mood filled with evil, we can’t speak of truth. Let’s not pick fights on the street and move in this direction,” he said.