Authorities Abandon One Million Dollar Structure in the Street: Hasmik Papyan

The Armenian opera singer Hasmik Papyan wrote on her Facebook page: “The day before yesterday, after a long break, while passing near Abovyan Square, I once again saw the unfinished building of the central museum designed by Hranti Matevosyan, in a neglected and disheveled environment filled with unsightly kiosks, some sort of dispatch office, dry trees, and garbage. There is a unique dissonance with the high and honorable names of Abovyan, Teryan, Tamanyan, and Matevosyan.

I learned from Davit Matevosyan that the construction of the center has been suspended for a year now, and the relevant committees and ministries of the new Armenian government have left a state budget-funded structure valued at nearly one million dollars out in the street and departed. All official and unofficial communications and meetings have yielded zero results.

Instead of resolving the issue promptly, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the government are occupied with inaction and a slow process of correspondence and explanations. I do not understand what is happening and what logic is being employed, or what absence of logic is being utilized in this case in the new Armenia. On one hand, Prime Minister Pashinyan starts his speech on February 12, the writer’s birthday, quoting Matevosyan, while on the other hand, he seems to be very calm and natural regarding the state of this half-constructed building and the inaction of the government and its departments.

I direct my question to the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Minister of Education and Culture, the Mayor of Yerevan, the head of the Urban Development Committee, and if there are any other responsible bodies and individuals, I pose this question to them: is this a lack of will, indifference, misunderstanding, or an unusual interpretation of cultural or urban development policy? I want to visit the building in the coming days and familiarize myself thoroughly with the situation. I call on the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and the government to do the same.”