ArmInfo
The legality of the project to build a cafe near National Library and Agrarian University can be disputed at court.
During a special discussion representative of Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center Sona Ayvazyan said that the center was ready to sue the owners on 28 April. She urged representatives of other NGOs to support them. She said that the center's last attempt to appeal to court (against the Teghut project) was a failure: the Administrative Court dismissed the claim while the Court of Cassation satisfied only the claim of Ecodar NGO and refused to recognize the center as claimant.
To recall, the cafe in one of the Yerevan parks has been a subject for ceaseless disputes between ecologists and Municipality of Yerevan for over a month. According to the Association of Consumers of Armenia, the cafe "swallowed" 20 trees, which is proved by photos and video-materials. At the same time, the official position of the Municipality is that the trees became the victims of not an axe, but excavators, which allegedly caught them accidentally. Garnik Manoukyan, a representative of the Armenian Nature Protection Ministry, thinks that the main problem is that the part, which earlier belonged to the Agrarian University, has been transferred to the Yerevan Municipality. Thus, the students of the Agrarian University and the rectorate are deprived of the opportunity to defend their rights. As regards possible interference of the ministry, it is practically brought to null, as according to Manoukyan, the owners of the cafe have all the necessary documents for construction. It is noteworthy that the documents are certified by the Municipality, which is famous for its numerous swears of love for green areas. And if the promises and the reality do not coincide, it is always possible to find the guilty – for instance, the excavators-tree haters (Armenian response to the Hollywood transformers).
April 28, 2010