Ani Samsonyan, a member of the council of the Bright Armenia party and former deputy of the National Assembly, spoke to Aravot.am about the explosion that took place at the Surmalu shopping center. “From the years of working in the Yerevan city council, we have always talked about the fact that buildings in Armenia are built and later operated with severe violations of fire safety rules. I mean, this could happen in a country where people don’t care that it could happen to them one day. Almost everyone ignores the safety rules, thinking that any accident or incident will bypass them. But it’s not really like that.
This was a lesson for us, so that all those who operate large buildings, construction, and shopping centers where a large number of people work, can review the safety mechanisms of the structures and understand that even the smallest thing that is necessary to maintain safety must be maintained and that should not be ignored.
Anyway, I think that both the state and administrative levels will be responsible for all this because today we have 16 casualties and there are still missing people. This is double the stress for our small country after the war. And we need to completely rethink our approach to security issues.”
Ashot Hakobyan
