After a meeting with the Mayor of Yerevan, activists said that Gagik Beglaryan promised to ban all kinds of construction in green zones, as he himself is “extremely concerned over the problem.”

Meanwhile, the Mayor’s Office issued a contradictory statement saying that “the city administration did not authorize a new construction in the Student Part, near the monument to Viktor Hambardzumyan.” The statement said that “permission was issued for modernization of two cafes functioning in the territory since 1996.” As to illegal felling, it’s in the competence of the Ministry of Nature and Environment Protection, according to the Mayor’s Office.

“I am anxious about the situation,” sculptor Tariel Hakobyan said in a conversation with a PanARMENIAN.Net correspondent. “I am speaking not as the creator of the monument to Viktor Hambardzumyan but as a Yerevan resident. Parks can’t be eliminated. It’s outrageous to erect concrete walls instead of planting more trees.”

“We do not want to know who builds, we want to know who authorized the building,” say public activists, who collected 16 thousand signatures.

The bad repute 1990ies has left its mark everywhere: cafes replace parks, night clubs open on the ground floors of dwelling houses. So, protests against permissiveness can’t but gladden. However, the authorities confine themselves to issues symbolic statements.

Hopefully, public initiatives will produce result one day...