CENTER OF YEREVAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 7 2006

After the earthquake in 1988, which took 25 000 lives, and among
the former Soviet countries Armenia was the first to adopt the
national regulations on seismic building, however, in Armenia not
all the building projects keep to the rules of seismic building,
stated Alvaro Antonyan, the head of the National Service of Seismic
Security on December 7. Today in Armenia seismic buildings can resist
magnitude 9 compared with the former magnitude 7. According to Alvaro
Antonyan, the center of Yerevan is the most dangerous area in Yerevan
considering the density of buildings and seismic resistance, "Buildings
are being built which are unacceptable in terms of urban planning. The
new highrise buildings increase the seismic risk. God forbid if a
strong earthquake destroyed one of them, traffic in the center of
Yerevan would be blocked for ambulances, rescuers." The Japanese
experts walking in the center of the town were amazed and even joked,
"Even Arno Babajanyan’s statue is amazed by this type of buildings."

The seismic map of Yerevan has been confirmed, which will underlie
the general map of the city, however, the head of the National Service
of Seismic Security says, "Unfortunately, the general map of Yerevan
is designed for a completely build-up city." Alvaro Antonyan stated
that there must be a vital area around every building, especially if
it is a highrise building. But "do we think we are not going to have
children any more, they don’t need a yard?" A 15-storey building is
built immediately on the pavement. Buildings were built even in the
area of the earthquake of Spitak, which do not comply with the rules
of seismic building. Alvaro Antonyan stated that the buildings built
for foreign companies comply with the rules of seismic construction,
whereas the Armenians tend to forget about the danger.

The National Service of Seismic Security does not have levers to stop
or prevent the building of dangerous buildings, however they have
expressed their fears to the relevant bodies. No cases of stopping
construction were reported. By the way, all the owners of the buildings
built in the center of Yerevan are high-ranking officials or their
relatives. Besides warning the government the National Service of
Seismic Security also works on raising awareness among the public
because if people are not prepared for an earthquake, the toll mounts
by 30 percent.