Armenian environmentalists protest against “illegal” construction

Armenian environmentalists protest against “illegal” construction

Arminfo
27 Mar 04

YEREVAN

The mayor’s office has called on the police to ban a picket to protest
against illegal construction in Yerevan’s green areas. The picket,
however, took place on 27 March despite the presence of more than 20
policemen in uniform and in civilian clothes who avoided being filmed.

The organizer of the picket and leader of the Armenian social and
ecological party, Armen Dovlatyan, said that Yerevan would become a
desert if the illegal construction were to go on.

Representatives of NGOs, the faculty of botany of the Yerevan State
University, the institute of zoology and the institute of botany of
the Armenian botanical society, the academy of ecology and other
organizations took part in the picket.

Passage omitted: background details