Friday, August 30 2013

The civil movement "Let's save the monument from the oligarch" is going to intensify the fight for maintenance of the Indoor Market. 

Ani Kochar, an activist of the movement, said at today's press conference that on August 31 the activists will start peaceful actions in front of the Indoor Market and will constantly control the situation to prevent any attempts to continue the construction and repair in the Market. She does not rule out that the tension around the Market may escalate, because there may be provokers and corrupt "activists".    

Kochar pointed at the Armenian Culture Ministry's repeated statements about the illegal construction in the area of the Indoor Market. Despite these statements, the construction was continued and almost completed.  According to the media reports, the Indoor Market will open in mid September as an ordinary supermarket. 

Activist Sarhat Petrosyan, in turn, pointed at the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage. According to the Convention and to the current legislation of Armenia, the state has the right to deprive the owner of the property rights in case the latter damages the monument.  

The 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, singer Artur Ispiryan and many other well-known people are among the members of the movement. The owner of the indoor market is oligarch-parliamentarian Samvel Aleksanyan.

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.