Environmentalist Arpine Galfayan is convinced that Yerevan City Council and other bodies of government don’t defend the interests of citizens, but rather those of oligarchs. “I don’t see defending public interests and in order to defend public interests, one should ask the public what they want, which is not done,” the activist said during a conversation with www.aravot.am.
According to her, there has been established a precedent, when a few people hand public areas over to private owners under unknown circumstances and that working style continues, “And they make illegal decisions, whereas these areas belong to the residents and citizens, they are to decide what kind of environment they want to build. In this sense, the city hall works badly.”
Anna Shahnazaryan, a member of We Are This City’s Owners initiative, is afraid that public areas will continue being privatized or constructed on under the sponsorship of the city hall, “As it has happened with other parks of the city. The example of Circle Park on Khanjyan Street, in particular, is a good lesson for us that such constructions are allowed part by part and at the end of the day, they are sold and taken off the green zone map of the city.”
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Arpine SIMONYAN
