When reconstruction began on Yerevan’s Republic Square in 2003, it became clear that there were stone walls, remnants of water pipes, and clay pipes, even an entire neighborhood. On January 9th, Nikol Pashinyan spoke about opening the historical part of Republic Square. He noted that activities to open the historical level and making it into a museum. “As a result, Republic Square will become an even better tourist attraction,” the Prime Minister wrote on his Facebook page. The Minister of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture Arayik Harutyunyan added that discussions are being held with experts on restoring the old city.
On January 14th, archeologist and architect Frina Babayan spoke during a press conference at the Tesaket club about how she and Aghavni Jamkochyan carried out excavations at Republic Square. She also worked on the clock that is on the government building. “I opened 3 rooms in the basement,” the scientist said. And this is how the book “Outlines of Ancient Yerevan History and Archeology” was born, which is an attempt to answer several questions, such as where the medieval monuments are in Yerevan.
Frina Babayan said that the findings during these excavations were a construction masterpiece. She emphasized that their patterns do not yet mean that these findings were Turkish or Persian constructions. “They are definitely the work of Armenian experts… They were made of natural tuff, which is why they were heavier bricks than usual. In general, everything in Yerevan is made of tuff stone.”
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She is convinced that these excavations need to be opened, experts need to be heard, and these findings need to be cleaned and presented to tourists. This will not have an impact on transportation near the square.
Renowned Armenian architect Hrach Poghosyan also welcomes the authorities’ position on this issue, but he believes that it is necessary to listen to the experts. According to him, “These are Armenians’ houses. What difference does it make who built them? History needs to be treated differently.”
He is also worried. “There was an initiative to open a parking lot under Republic Square. In this case, all the monuments will be destroyed. Now, they will either have to keep the monuments and build parking lots in the free areas, which I doubt is possible because there was an entire city in this location, or they will have to not build a parking lot.”
Gohar Hakobyan
