A group of youths held a protest against illegal construction in the Covered Marketplace outside the market today. Architect Pavil Jangirov who joined them described what had happened to the market as “architectural crime.” “Destructing such a monument is a crime. They say that the monument is not being destructed, but the monument comprises not just the façade, but the whole of it…. Now the backside of the building is destructed; supposedly seven to eight stories will be built in the backside. The construction should be stopped and a professional plan should be developed, discussed, and it should be decided what one should do with that building; it is obvious that we have lost the monument.”
Before the architect would finish, women considering themselves former vendors of the Covered Marketplace joined those gathered and asked those gathered where they had been so far. “What monument have they ruined? They are building one. Ugh, let them build. You have just been born; we know what is what here. They are renovating. It wasn’t good when stones would fall on children’s heads, now was it? They are renovating, it will be a market, and we will come to work. There is no supermarket on the territory; what harm will it do to have one?” She assured that the market will operate after the renovation. “I heard say, I know that when the market was being demolished we knew that there would be a market. If we hadn’t known, we wouldn’t have left. I have worked in the market for as long as 20 years.” Another woman who used to sell greens in the backside of the market replaced her and also expressed surprise at their protesting, complained that in the past when the market had operated, and she would sell there, it had been full of rats. She called for ceasing the protests, because the renovated market would start to operate soon. While the video camera of www.aravot.am was shooting the backside of the market, some men passed by and grumbled. One of them said that we shouldn’t shoot, because we would be caught. In response to a question who he was, whether he was the honcho, he said yes, but when he saw the camera he said no and left, laughing.
Details in the video
Arpine SIMONYAN
