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LET'S PRESERVE AFRIKYANS HOUSE: CAMPAIGN GETS BOOST FROM WORLD-RENOWNED PIANIST
HUMAN RIGHTS | 25.06.14 | 20:46
http://armenianow.com/society/human_rights/55567/armenia_afrikyan_house_campaign_protest_pianist_ti gran_hamasyan
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
Worried for the fate of the 130-year-old Afrikyans club building
jazz pianist, the winner of 2006 world-famous Monk international jazz
competition, Tigran Hamasyan joined in the fight for the preservation
of the building in the center of Yerevan.
On Wednesday Let's Preserve Afrikyans Club Building civic campaign
members brought a piano for Hamasyan and placed it in front of
the construction site where the famous musician gave a concert
in preservation of the historical building, using music as a tool
of fight.
"If there is history with this building, there is the spirit of that
history, the piece of stone has some story, that history must be
respected and loved - what people did two centuries before us. That's
all, but this shouldn't be treated with animosity - on both sides. We
must understand each other," 27-year-old Hamasyan said.
Nevertheless, things got tense between the activists and the police
after the concert, when the activists started heating with hands the
metallic fence surrounding the building. The police applied force
pushing people away from the fence, later forming a human wall around
the construction site.
After the deputy chief of Yerevan's police Valeri Osipyan arrived
the police opened the way for the traffic pushing the citizens aside
causing some to fall. According to Osipyan, all police actions were
legal because the citizens started the clashes with the police.
Opposition Heritage party secretary Stepat Safaryan mentions that the
system cannot solve problems anymore, they have piled up, just like
Afrikyans building story problems related to which date back to 2000.
"Secondly, we have a generation with a spirit of ownership that
differs from the senior generation, does not want to get along,
views things and events differently, does not ignore illegalities,
wants to live in their land and thus fights. This speaks of a grown
civil society," he said.
Sarhat Petrosyan, an architect and a member of Let's Preserve
Afrikyans Club Building civic campaign, writes on his Facebook page,
"I am almost sure that success is on our side, and that we solve
various problems at every moment... Believe me, when nine years ago
we were on Byuzand Street, besides the residents only some ten people
would gather, some of whom are by our side here as well... It is not
one building that we are saving today, but many others that will be
removed in the nearest future; there has never been such in-depth
struggle for heritage preservation before..."
With a document about immediate stop of the dismantling of the
building a member of the History and Culture preservation agency of the
Ministry of Culture stepped up saying that the documents presented by
the construction workers are incomplete. Thus the agency considers it
necessary to immediately stop the dismantling works before presenting
the proper documents. Despite all these, the construction workers
kept on extracting the facade stones of the building.
Another ground for stopping the dismantling works is the application
submitted to the court by joint efforts of the Armenian Helsinki
Committee and the Urban Lab public organization which challenges the
Yerevan City Hall and the Government's decision about removing the
Afrikyans club building. An additional mediation is also presented
to the court for stopping the processes.
From: Baghdasarian
HUMAN RIGHTS | 25.06.14 | 20:46
http://armenianow.com/society/human_rights/55567/armenia_afrikyan_house_campaign_protest_pianist_ti gran_hamasyan
NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
Worried for the fate of the 130-year-old Afrikyans club building
jazz pianist, the winner of 2006 world-famous Monk international jazz
competition, Tigran Hamasyan joined in the fight for the preservation
of the building in the center of Yerevan.
On Wednesday Let's Preserve Afrikyans Club Building civic campaign
members brought a piano for Hamasyan and placed it in front of
the construction site where the famous musician gave a concert
in preservation of the historical building, using music as a tool
of fight.
"If there is history with this building, there is the spirit of that
history, the piece of stone has some story, that history must be
respected and loved - what people did two centuries before us. That's
all, but this shouldn't be treated with animosity - on both sides. We
must understand each other," 27-year-old Hamasyan said.
Nevertheless, things got tense between the activists and the police
after the concert, when the activists started heating with hands the
metallic fence surrounding the building. The police applied force
pushing people away from the fence, later forming a human wall around
the construction site.
After the deputy chief of Yerevan's police Valeri Osipyan arrived
the police opened the way for the traffic pushing the citizens aside
causing some to fall. According to Osipyan, all police actions were
legal because the citizens started the clashes with the police.
Opposition Heritage party secretary Stepat Safaryan mentions that the
system cannot solve problems anymore, they have piled up, just like
Afrikyans building story problems related to which date back to 2000.
"Secondly, we have a generation with a spirit of ownership that
differs from the senior generation, does not want to get along,
views things and events differently, does not ignore illegalities,
wants to live in their land and thus fights. This speaks of a grown
civil society," he said.
Sarhat Petrosyan, an architect and a member of Let's Preserve
Afrikyans Club Building civic campaign, writes on his Facebook page,
"I am almost sure that success is on our side, and that we solve
various problems at every moment... Believe me, when nine years ago
we were on Byuzand Street, besides the residents only some ten people
would gather, some of whom are by our side here as well... It is not
one building that we are saving today, but many others that will be
removed in the nearest future; there has never been such in-depth
struggle for heritage preservation before..."
With a document about immediate stop of the dismantling of the
building a member of the History and Culture preservation agency of the
Ministry of Culture stepped up saying that the documents presented by
the construction workers are incomplete. Thus the agency considers it
necessary to immediately stop the dismantling works before presenting
the proper documents. Despite all these, the construction workers
kept on extracting the facade stones of the building.
Another ground for stopping the dismantling works is the application
submitted to the court by joint efforts of the Armenian Helsinki
Committee and the Urban Lab public organization which challenges the
Yerevan City Hall and the Government's decision about removing the
Afrikyans club building. An additional mediation is also presented
to the court for stopping the processes.
From: Baghdasarian