Former Director of the Dendropark Sounds Alarm: Minister has Increased Rent for Their Leased Area by 833%

Journalist Voskanyan Sargsyan’s post states:

“The long-time director of Ijevan’s Dendropark, Mekhak Sayadyan, was recently dismissed from his position. The Dendropark, which serves as a hallmark of Ijevan, was established in 1960 by Mekhak Sayadyan’s father, Ludwig Sayadyan, a candidate of biological sciences who managed the park for many years.

The Sayadyan family has been using part of the dendropark area under a long-term lease for growing seedlings. Mekhak Sayadyan claims that the Minister of Environment, Romanos Petrosyan, intends to take this part of the dendropark away from their family. He reports that the ministry has set an annual rent fee of 8 million drams for that section, increasing the annual fee by 833 percent, thereby aiming to terminate the lease agreement.

Mekhak Sayadyan stated that Ara Hakobyan, acting director of the State Enterprise “Arhelotsapark” instead of defending the remaining 5 hectares of the dendropark from the 5.7 hectares, also took measures to file a lawsuit regarding illegal construction conducted by the Ijevan wine and brandy factory, which resulted in the erosion of part of the dendropark’s territory due to the flooding of the Aghstev River, while he is making baseless staffing appointments in the dendropark.

Sayadyan reported that Vardan, who was previously appointed as the acting director of the dendropark and worked as a supervisor, has been returned to the same job as a guard, and a new worker has been hired in the role of supervisor, leaving the dendropark with only one worker. Sayadyan states: “Look, one director, one supervisor, one guard, and just one worker for 5 hectares; it’s brilliant.”

He emphasizes that the new staff at the dendropark, including director Gevorg Vardapetyan and the newly employed supervisor Haykaz, despite having graduated from the ecology department of the Ijevan branch of Yerevan State University, do not recognize the rare trees and shrubs of the dendropark and lack experience working with them.

Sayadyan announced that he has appealed to the administrative court disputing the legality of the order dismissing him from the position of director of the dendropark. He also filed a complaint with the police regarding the damage caused to the Ijevan dendropark as a result of the illegal construction.

Few people know that in addition to the Stepanavan dendropark, there is also a dendropark in Ijevan. It is located right in the city on the banks of the Aghstev River.

According to information from the news outlet “Hetq,” on March 15, 2016, the company “Green Symphony” leased more than half of Ijevan’s dendropark, covering an area of 8.5 hectares, for the purpose of organizing leisure. The rent was set at 917,147 drams, with a lease term extending to the year 2040.