“I don’t like when something is being done for the city, for the fatherland, and party members forget about that important issue and start to fight. Those partisan fights are the things I hate the most. In this case, there was an offer from the Heritage Party, and I agreed. If I could do something good for my city, it wouldn’t matter which party would make an offer,” Artur Ispiryan, a singer who is included in the list of the Hello Yerevan Coalition for the city council, said during a conversation with www.aravot.am. In his words, he runs for the city council as a citizen, a man who loves the city, not as an artist. “I put aside all issues regarding art, my records, my work, because the time has come for us to think about our city. Although I think of our Taron Margaryan’s work somewhat positively, there are a lot of drawbacks, a lot of things to do.” He complained about the sanitary condition of the city, in particular. “The sanitary engineering and the urban planning are in a terrible condition; one can say the same thing about unfinished buildings. There are a lot of things that I make notes of when I walk down the streets of the city and enter such places, where cars cannot enter. There are things that are behind walls, are not visible, but those issues should be solved; one should ensure elementary facilities for people. Whoever became the mayor thought, along with his team, that this city is his private property; everyone should heist something and leave. It is not like that. This city is not private property; this is not a pie they can share with their fellow party members or employees of the city hall, once they become the mayor. Nothing is left of our city now. One should think about the appearance of our city too.” Mr. Ispiryan has one wish that “our nation that drinks the first toast to the parents will not allow a 70-year-old woman to sweep the streets with a broom at 4-5 o’clock in the morning as in prehistoric times, without feeling secure. At night, before the dawn, those aged women in dust, what year, what century is this? There are various solutions; if many officials give up on superprofits and think just for a moment that this city will also be their children’s, they will solve those. One shouldn’t make such hasty decisions that have caused such a distortion in our city’s architectural appearance. One should not reelect the architect who hasn’t done anything good the chief architect. All architects made mistakes and were pressured. If the chief architect should be pressured, it means that it makes no difference whether he exists or not.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
