Recently, “Asbarez” referred to fate of the house (address: Aram 7 Street (according to some newspapers, Aram 9 Street)) belonging to one of the founders of the First Republic, Aram Manukyan. “Both the then and the current responsible officials of the municipality may argue that there is nothing bad in here. It is sold to maintain the facade of the ruins located at Aram 9 Street under the renewable “Old Yerevan” program, with a signboard reading that the founder of Armenia’s new statehood Aram Manukyan has lived behind this wall. Therewith, any sacrilege can be justified,” writes “Asbarez”, by qualifying Aram Manukyan an exile from his created homeland, arguing that the country’s moral memory was sold alienating the territory of the house as a usual ground.
Pertaining to the fate of the monument, we asked for a comment from the Head of Yerevan Branch of the State Agency to Preserve Monuments of History and Culture at the RA Ministry of Culture, Karo Ayvazyan, who told to Aravot.am that this house is truly in the list of monuments, he also assured that it is not at stake. “Two times, the Dashnaks turned to us saying that they want to establish a museum of Aram Manukyan here. To the point, one of them happened recently, also wishing to erect Aram Manukyan’s statue or his bust in the neighborhood. We replied that the house will be restored under the “Old Yerevan project”, and we are in favor of having a museum of Aram Manukyan there, and as for the statue, there was a problem with the locations. In other words, if it is in the backyard area, the statue may not match by the scale, and a place can be found for it on the street, but it should be viewed with “Old Yerevan” project, in the view of the overall architecture. Now, a project has been presented under the “Old Yerevan” project, which has been elaborated and currently, there are contractual problems. We are going to raise the issue again, because we believe that the owner should at least provide part of the building for Aram Manukyan Museum. And according to my subjective opinion, it would be better to have not Aram Manukyan’s but a large-scale museum dedicated to the history of the First Republic,” said Karo Ayvazyan. Note that Aram Manukyan has lived by this address Aram 7 Street from mid December, 1917 to January 29, 1919, until his death, later on his widow – Ekaterina Zalyan-Manukan, a Deputy of the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia, and beginning from 1920, also the third Prime Minister of Armenia, Hamazasp Ohanjanyan, with his family. The once Tsarskaya Street has become Aram Street in 1919 pursuant to the RA Government Decree, in 1921-1991, it was renamed after Spandaryan, and finally in 1991, again to Aram Street.
Gohar HAKOBYAN, Photo by asbarez.com
