‘Much Ado About Nothing’: Ruben Hakhverdyan on Mashtots Park Protests

Armenian singer-songwriter Ruben Hakhverdyan, becoming better acquainted with the issues surrounding Mashtots Park, concluded that the issue is not environmental.

Speaking to journalists at a press conference in Yerevan today, he summed up the issue this way: “A lot of noise over nothing.” Recall, environmental and civic activists have been camped out at the park for two weeks, protesting the construction of retail shops in one of downtown Yerevan’s few remaining green spaces.

Hakhverdyan, however, said he trusts Yerevan mayor Taron Margaryan and believes that the mayor wouldn’t “do anything bad”.

“He’s his father’s son. He won’t do anything bad for the city.” The protests are “a lot of noise over nothing. Let them fight for those buildings that are being built behind [those shops]. The power is not contained. Due to three [successive] government, the culture of urban development has been lost; the city’s intelligentsia left the city. They should’ve managed the situation at the time so that this sort of unsightly city wouldn’t be built,” he said, implying that the damage has already been done and current efforts are futile.