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Environmentalist Karine Danielyan has met with Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan. According to Karine Danelyan, Karen Karapetyan has promised that Yerevan green zones wouldn't be destroyed any more.
APPEAL: PUBLIC COUNCIL URGES YEREVAN MAYOR TO PREVENT THE DESTRUCTION OF GREEN AREAS
Gayane Mkrtchyan, ArmeniaNow
During his meeting with the members of the public council early this month mayor of Yerevan Karen Karapetyan confirmed his earlier voiced decision to forbid construction at the expense of green zones assuring that the center of Yerevan will not be part of urban development anymore.
Public council members Karine Danielyan and Hmayak Hovhannissyan said at a press conference on Tuesday that despite the mayor’s solemn pledges more construction sites keep appearing in the city.
“I receive more than 30 calls every day from different districts of Yerevan. Right at this moment residents of two buildings on the corner of Koghbatsi and Pushkin streets are warning that the total area of the courtyard is being dug to build a multi-story residence depriving the area of a green zone and/or a yard. Unfortunately, the license was signed by the current mayor on December 30 [2010]”, says environmentalist Karine Danielyan.
The environmentalists say they have drawn the mayor’s attention to the issue of Nubarashen waste dump, stressing that it poses a threat not only to the villages of Ararat valley, but also to Yerevan.
“Indeed, some international organizations are carrying out different studies; however, the release of assessment reports is being delayed. The satisfactory solution to this issue would, certainly, be the isolation of the dump, however, a more fundamental solution would be a complete removal of the hazards from the area,” says Danielyan.
The environmentalists are willing to work as part of a special ecology council adjunct to the City Hall, however the mayor is reluctant to support the idea, considering the existing department on environmental issues to be sufficient.
“Any big city has an ecology council, and our mayor has been told that he does not need it,” says Danielyan.
March 29, 2011