YEREVAN MUNICIPALITY’S TALE ABOUT KILLER EXCAVATORS

ArmInfo
2010-04-27 20:12:00

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 today representative of Transparency
International Anti-Corruption Center Sona Ayvazyan said that the
center was ready to sue the owners. 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).