Chemists Demand Meeting with Prime Minister Pashinyan

Employees of the Scientific and Technological Center for Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Kanaker-Zeytun administrative district of Yerevan are again staging a protest near the government building, demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. This was reported by Sputnik Armenia.

The site of the center's pool has been sold off for the construction of a multi-storey building. Although construction work has not yet begun, the area is already fenced off. Currently, the developer is addressing water supply issues, and the scientists are already complaining that they are unable to work as laboratories containing expensive equipment are shaken by the operations of construction machinery.

"The area was sold with the help of corruption, and now, with the same corruption, excavations are being carried out. We want to understand whether Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is unaware of this issue or is it just a matter of blind eye policy. We need the government’s position," said the deputy director of the center, Robert Hakobyan.

According to Sputnik Armenia, protesters do not understand why a 14-storey building needs to be constructed in the area of the pool. Scientists are outraged as to why a center engaged in scientifically significant activities should be relocated when it has been operating at its current address since the 1950s.

Previously, Narek Manukyan, the press secretary of Green Property Development LLC, stated that they not only have ownership rights but that all the work carried out is legal. The pool area was sold back in 2006 at a price 40 times lower than its cadastral value and nearly 220 times lower than its market value. Moreover, the sold area is on the list of lands that cannot be transferred in ownership to citizens and legal entities.

As early as 2016, the RA Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case. Subsequently, the case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for holding the mentioned individuals accountable. In this case, the Yerevan urban community is considered the victim as the legal successor of the neighborhood communities. In 2019, the prosecutor's office suggested the city hall take measures to recover the property and compensate for damages, yet the area remains sold off.