Epress.am News from Armenia
Environmentalists who for five days straight have been protesting the construction of kiosks in the park next to the maternity hospital on Mashtots Ave. in Yerevan did not reach an agreement with the city’s mayor at a meeting on Wednesday.
Speaking to Epress.am, the young activists said Heritage Party MP Anahit Bakhshyan, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) MP Lilit Galstian, Yerevan’s chief architect Narek Sargsyan, Association for Sustainable Human Development President Karine Danielyan and three activists were present at the meeting, which lasted 2.5 hours.
Environmentalist Yeghia Nersisyan said the group was invited to attend another meeting with Narek Sargsyan later in the evening, which they agreed to; however, she says they have no guarantees that workers won’t return to the work and continue building the kiosks.
“The mayor promised us that until this committee is created there won’t be any construction. Despite his promise, we’re in the park and continue our vigilance. Speaking with the mayor we understood that these kiosks won’t be removed, though he spoke from that position. We aren’t changing our position and continue to fight,” she said.
“They connected this issue with the Old Yerevan architectural project. In my opinion, the question of this space and that project have no connection to each other. As for what will happen to Old Yerevan, I don’t know, but those kiosks shouldn’t be placed in the park,” said MP Anahit Bakhshyan, speaking to Epress.am.
The opposition lawmaker is convinced that the mayor won’t annul his earlier decision to install the kiosks because “it’s not as if they belong to random people.”
“It’s obvious that the mayor is hostage to some liabilities,” she said.
MP Lilit Galstian mentioned that Old Yerevan is a project that hasn’t been realized, and during the meeting the mayor tried to convince them that this construction project is a temporary solution and the main plan has been confirmed till the year 2020.
“On my suggestion we’ll meet today because they haven’t provided us with the legal basis for the project, the package, on which the construction is to be implemented. Today [Wednesday evening] everything will be clear, but I continue to be the defender of public green spaces. The urban development plan in Yerevan has to be civilized. The approaches and times of [outdoor] markets [and kiosks] have passed. It’s civilized to have a green, breathable city,” she said.
One thing is clear, Galstyan added: one must be awfully stubborn in this situation in order to prove that one plus one equals two.