The Indoor Market of Yerevan will open in the near future. According to the media, it will be able to serve its first customers on September 15. It is a big question whether the current market will resemble the one Yerevan's residents were accustomed to, especially given its interior photos published by the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper. Judging by the photos, it will be an ordinary supermarket consisting of two floors. This runs counter to the statements that the building will have its initial appearance.
A Civic Movement "Let's save the monument from the oligarch" has recently been set up in defense of the indoor market. Architect Sashur Kalashyan, activist Yeghia Nersisyan, analyst Garegin Chugaszyan and singer Artur Ispiryan are among the members of the movement. The owner of the indoor market is oligarch-parliamentarian Samvel Aleksanyan.
On August 29 Garegin Chugaszyan told the media that the movement intends to fight for maintenance of the Indoor Market in all legal ways. He recalled that the Indoor Market is on the list of Yerevan's historical monuments and the changes in its appearance are illegal. Though there are almost 2 weeks left before the opening of the market, the analyst thinks that it is not late to retrieve the Indoor Market the residents of Yerevan love so much.
Sashur Kalashyan thinks that the responsibility for the current situation lies on the Municipality of Yerevan, because the public has repeatedly tried to draw the Municipality's attention to the construction of the reinforced concrete frame that disfigures the appearance of the building. He recalled that the market owner has been fined twice. According to the current legislation, if the owner has repeatedly evaded the obligations imposed on him, the state has the right to take away the monument from him.
Artur Ispiryan, in turn, pointed out that the atmosphere of the Indoor Market and the mixture of dialects from all over Armenia are one of the bright memories of his childhood. In this context, he expressed regret that the initial exterior of the building has not been restored and the building will no longer be an indoor market. "I condemn the fact that we are losing the history of Yerevan because of the personal benefit of a few people", he said.
The Indoor Market was built in 1952 by Armenian architect Grigory Aghababyan's project and has been considered one of the symbols of the Armenian capital since then. The repair inside the building has damaged the original exterior of the building. In early June, the municipality promised that the constructions erected inside the building would be demolished and the original appearance would be restored. However, these constructions have not been dismantled.