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Top Architects Up In Arms Over Yerevan 'Destruction'

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  • Top Architects Up In Arms Over Yerevan 'Destruction'

    TOP ARCHITECTS UP IN ARMS OVER YEREVAN 'DESTRUCTION'
    By Gayane Danielian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
    Dec 12 2006

    A group of renowned Armenian architects are ringing alarm bells over
    the few remaining old buildings in central Yerevan that seem to be
    disappearing in a construction boom which is rapidly changing the
    city center.

    In a joint appeal to Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, they called
    for the Armenian government's "immediate intervention" in what they
    see as an illegal destruction of the country's historical and cultural
    heritage.

    They listed in particular a dozen buildings dating back to the
    pre-Soviet period that were supposed to be protected by the state
    but have been torn down by private developers over the past two years.

    All of those buildings were included in December 2004 on a government
    list of over a hundred properties that are not subject to demolition.

    The list was meant to regulate a massive redevelopment in central
    Yerevan that began in 2002 and is now in full swing. Hundreds of mainly
    small and decrepit houses have since been controversially torn down to
    give way to modern high-rises offering luxury housing and office space.

    The letter's signatories led by Varazdat Harutiunian, a veteran
    member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, believe that the
    process is threatening to wipe out what remains of old Yerevan. They
    are particularly concerned about the fate of a famous building that
    was constructed in 1905 to serve as the headquarters of the regional
    governor of what then was the Russian Empire. It later housed the
    government of an independent Armenian republic that existed from
    1918-1921.

    Karo Ayvazian, a Culture Ministry official in charge of protection of
    historic monuments, confirmed reports that the government has sold
    the building to Hirair Hovnanian, an U.S. businessman of Armenian
    descent. Hovannisian plans to radically remodel the three-story
    building by adding two more stories and preserving only its ornate
    facade, he said.

    The remodeled building will house the Yerevan office of the Armenian
    Assembly of America, an advocacy group sponsored by Hovnanian,
    and private firms. "The historical value of the building will be
    preserved," the office director, Arpi Vartanian, told RFE/RL.

    But Artsvin Grigorian, another prominent architect who signed the
    letter to the Armenian premier, disagreed. "They say the building won't
    be damaged because they have no idea of what a historical monument is,"
    he said,. "A monument can not be redesigned or reshaped."

    Mkrtich Minasian, chairman of the Armenian Union of Architects,
    took a similar view: "Surely, a monument loses its significance when
    it is torn down or moved. It ceases to be a monument and becomes a
    mere decoration."

    Minasian also shared widespread criticism of the government's handling
    of the ongoing redevelopment. "As a result of these policies, we have
    been all but deprived of buildings constructed in the late 19th and
    early 20th centuries," he said.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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