Read the letter in Armenian

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 façade, 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.

By Gayane Danielian