“No monument in Yerevan will be demolished” (video)
No monument in Yerevan will be demolished, assures Minister of Urban Development Narek Sargsyan, he personally guarantees it, “Just in front of Dolmama, on the corner of Abovyan Street there is a monument-building, which belongs to the same developer and there are also cellars, which have been fully preserved and developed, I am sure these cellars also won’t be demolished. When there is a task, the limitations will be mentioned in the task so that the buildings and cellars are preserved if they are valuable. I haven’t been in the cellar of that tavern, I don’t know.” Some days ago the author of “Old Yerevan” project Levon Vardanyan announced that the building on Aram 30 isn’t worth being included in his project. “A1+” asked Narek Sargsyan whether he will insist on including Aram 30 in the project, “Levon Vardanyan is the architect of the project, and the instructions are given by the authorities, in this case by the Municipality and me, as I have signed the agreement with the developer. We will simply include Aram 30 in the instructions.” As for the terms of the project’s construction, he assured that already this year the activities will be noticeable. Narek Sargsyan is also surprised at the news spread on media, “I have heard the news, that the gallery may be demolished, hurry to help, there is no such thing. They have simply said that once there was uproar about the construction of that building, it was in the 1970s, I was a student, I remember them saying that it contradicted the conception of Tamanyan. But it was built and now it is the essential part of the Republic Square, and no one is going to demolish it.” According to the Minister of Urban Development there are buildings, which must be demolished only if strictly necessary, such was the Afrikyan building, “There was an issue connected with street widening.” In reply to the question by “A1+” whether it was necessary to demolish the building of Youth Palace, Narek Sargsyan answered, “I didn’t work during those years, I have simply heard, if there was constructive necessity, they shouldn’t have announced tender, it should have been given to the developer and made him build a building like the previous one correspondent to modern demands. But tender was held and a Japanese company won, but fortunately that building wasn’t constructed, as it had enormous sizes. At present we, to be honest, are looking for legislative solutions, in order to take drastic steps in such cases. We want to add sanctions, in order to make them either sell their land, if they don’t have investments, or start construction activities so that the city won’t be in such situation, because it also affects investors. They come, see the situation and don’t want to invest.”
