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ACTIVISTS INITIATE ANOTHER BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN
Activists and police in Yerevan (photo by hetq.am)
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Youth activists who forced Yerevan Mayor Taron
Markarian to reverse a sharp rise in public transport fees last month
warned the municipality on Monday against enforcing a new parking
system that would put a much heavier financial burden on car owners.
The Yerevan municipality last month contracted, on a supposedly
competitive basis, a private firm to collect fees from parking spaces
on busy streets across the Armenian capital. The company, Parking
City Service, is currently installing surveillance cameras that will
be used for charging drivers 100 drams (25 U.S. cents) per hour. The
municipal authorities will receive 30 percent of its revenues.
Parking fees in Yerevan have until now been collected by individual
attendants working for the municipality or obscure private firms.
Drivers are typically required to pay a fixed fee of 100 drams. They
will thus have to pay much more under the new electronic billing
system which is due to come into force on September 1.
Many motorists are already alarmed by this prospect. Their concerns
are shared by hundreds of mostly young civic activists that have been
at loggerheads with the Mayor's Office over the past month. Critics
object to not only the higher parking charges but also the fact
that most of them will go to the private operator. They claim that
Parking City Service is controlled by senior municipality officials
or their cronies.
Hundreds of activists gathered in a public park in downtown Yerevan
on Sunday evening to discuss ways of challenging the controversial
parking system. They agreed on the need to generate a mass boycott
of the new rules through a campaign of street protests.
One of their leaders, Sevak Mamian, spoke on Monday of a new campaign
of civil disobedience. "If the municipality gives whole road sections
to a private firm, that will indirectly give motorists the right to
park their cars anywhere they want. So drivers may well park in the
middle of streets in protest," Mamian told RFE/RL's Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am).
The mainly non-partisan activists already urged commuters to defy a
more than 50 surge in the cost of public transport late last month.
Markarian bowed to the pressure after several days of angry protest
s backed by dozens of Armenian celebrities.
The mayor seemed determined to go ahead with the new parking system on
Monday. Meeting with senior members of his administration, he warned
that park attendants will face a police crackdown if they continue
collecting fees after September 1.
http://asbarez.com/112421/activist-initiate-another-boycott-campaign/
Activists and police in Yerevan (photo by hetq.am)
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Youth activists who forced Yerevan Mayor Taron
Markarian to reverse a sharp rise in public transport fees last month
warned the municipality on Monday against enforcing a new parking
system that would put a much heavier financial burden on car owners.
The Yerevan municipality last month contracted, on a supposedly
competitive basis, a private firm to collect fees from parking spaces
on busy streets across the Armenian capital. The company, Parking
City Service, is currently installing surveillance cameras that will
be used for charging drivers 100 drams (25 U.S. cents) per hour. The
municipal authorities will receive 30 percent of its revenues.
Parking fees in Yerevan have until now been collected by individual
attendants working for the municipality or obscure private firms.
Drivers are typically required to pay a fixed fee of 100 drams. They
will thus have to pay much more under the new electronic billing
system which is due to come into force on September 1.
Many motorists are already alarmed by this prospect. Their concerns
are shared by hundreds of mostly young civic activists that have been
at loggerheads with the Mayor's Office over the past month. Critics
object to not only the higher parking charges but also the fact
that most of them will go to the private operator. They claim that
Parking City Service is controlled by senior municipality officials
or their cronies.
Hundreds of activists gathered in a public park in downtown Yerevan
on Sunday evening to discuss ways of challenging the controversial
parking system. They agreed on the need to generate a mass boycott
of the new rules through a campaign of street protests.
One of their leaders, Sevak Mamian, spoke on Monday of a new campaign
of civil disobedience. "If the municipality gives whole road sections
to a private firm, that will indirectly give motorists the right to
park their cars anywhere they want. So drivers may well park in the
middle of streets in protest," Mamian told RFE/RL's Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am).
The mainly non-partisan activists already urged commuters to defy a
more than 50 surge in the cost of public transport late last month.
Markarian bowed to the pressure after several days of angry protest
s backed by dozens of Armenian celebrities.
The mayor seemed determined to go ahead with the new parking system on
Monday. Meeting with senior members of his administration, he warned
that park attendants will face a police crackdown if they continue
collecting fees after September 1.
http://asbarez.com/112421/activist-initiate-another-boycott-campaign/