City Hall Does Not Accommodate Restaurant Business, Has Collected Seasonal Fees: 'Haykakan Zham' Reports

Members of the Armenian Restaurant Association find themselves in a difficult position. The Yerevan City Hall is not accommodating them. In an interview with 'Haykakan Zham,' Vahé Gevorgyan, the director of the Armenian Restaurant Association, candidly shared that the City Hall has not made any concessions and has collected seasonal fees from the restaurant business.

“For example, there’s an issue concerning the Yerevan city hall. The business paid seasonal fees to the city hall while not operating, and the city hall has categorically not accommodated any requests. The business was not operating at that time; some sort of adjustment could have been made. Since only outdoor areas are occupied and our citizens prefer to sit in open spaces, and given that the areas for cafés in outdoor spaces have been reduced based on decisions from the commandant, maintaining the required distance, for this reason, we suggested to the City Hall that cafés should be allowed to set up a few more tables for the new season so that at least a percentage of their turnover could be restored. However, there has been no response from the City Hall regarding this matter,” Gevorgyan elaborated.

He added, “We want to meet with the mayor to discuss this issue, and we hope that a solution will be found at that level.” It is worth noting that the proposal to meet with the mayor has also gone unanswered by the City Hall. One could say that the entire city has declared a 'manhunt’ for the mayor.