The issue of the Indoor Market, which has turned from a historical monument of Yerevan into an ordinary supermarket, was raised during a meeting of parliamentarians and government members on Wednesday.
Nikol Pashinyan, MP from the Armenian National Congress Faction, said that a criminal case on the damage caused to the monument should have been instituted. "I demand that the Government should explain why no measures established by the law were taken and why the historical monument has been demolished despite the fact that the issue has been raised in Parliament for a year", he said.
"According to the Constitution, the people that must reply to my questions must be in this hall. Let them return from China and answer my questions. The Prime
Minister has no right to be on a business trip today", Pashinyan said meaning Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan's visit to China. He stressed that the Premier is directly accountable for the current situation around the Indoor Market. "In 2012, during the hearings on the governmental program, I asked the Premier about the Indoor Market. He answered that the issue was to be studied, discussed, and assessed. But now we have no Indoor Market at all", said Pashinyan.
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.