Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan’s resolution to close down street trading was ill-timed and may lead to increase in poverty and unemployment level, according to ARF Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary group member Artsvik Minasyan.

As he told a news conference in Yerevan, the resolution was unjustified, as the Mayor’s Office failed to provide alternative possibilities for street vendors. “Armenian government had to take steps in order to compensate the vendors and provide them with jobs upon the closure of street markets,” Minasyan believes.