Mane Madoyan, www.eritasard.am
Representatives of various nature protection organizations discussed the issue of the park near the National Library on 27 April. According to data presented by the municipality, there is no construction going on there and the area is being renovated upon the request of a group of academics.
However, environmentalists and architects are rest assured that the situation at the park doesn’t “smell” like renovation. An invitation to participate in the discussion was sent to the RA Ministry of Nature Protection and Yerevan municipality. However, only ministry representatives took part in the discussion.
Representative of the Ministry of Nature Protection Garnik Manukyan mentioned that the Ministry is not authorized to concede areas. Manukyan also mentioned that receive authorization for certain activities only in the case of legal violations.
“The park has belonged to the municipality for three years already and not the Agrarian University. I have personally seen all documents relating to that area and there are no flaws. All documents are well-done and signed by Gagik Beglaryan,” said Garnik Manukyan and added that it was necessary to force municipality employees to come to the discussion.
The participants decided that instead of specifying the uncertainty that has been extended for over 10 years due to lack of clarification of authorizations of the municipality and the ministry, they should come up with a number of actions, starting from protests to the court. After the meeting, president of “Ecolur” informational NGO Inga Zarafyan said: “We can say the movement has already begun.”
Individual groups have already taken initial steps. The initiative “This city is not ownerless-we are the owners of this city”, which launched a week ago on www.facebook.am, already has 1,700 registered supporters. Member of the initiative, political scientist Vahram Soghomonyan is sure that this is just the beginning.
In the meantime, representatives of the Ministry of Nature Protection had already come out to the hallway. According to them, their years of work experience reminded them that these discussions are boring and won’t help the job.
“It is already late,” the RA Ministry of Nature Protection representative told the fighters for the park near the National Library.
“The park had to be saved when no holes had been dug. People had to come here and lay on the excavators. There is no other way.”
April 29, 2010