AFRIKYANS CLUB’S FACADE DEMOLISHED
by Ashot Safaryan
Wednesday, July 2, 12:24
The facade of the ancient building of Afrikyans Club in the center
of Yerevan has been completely demolished, Wednesday.
Actually, the last weeks’ public protests against demolition of the
building proved useless. The remaining part of the building will be
demolished soon.
The Afrikyan building, located on 11 Teryan Street, was built at the
end of the 19th century. Based on a Government decision in 2004, the
building was included in the state list of historical and cultural
immovable monuments of the city of Yerevan as a national monument.
According to a new Government decision the Afrikyan building will
be dismantled and rebuilt at another location in order to broaden
the roadway. The building is included in the “Old Yerevan” program,
which will be designed and implemented in the neighboring streets of
Abovyan, Byuzand, Koghbatsi and Aram.
The activists reported earlier that the Armenian Parliament ratified
the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological
Heritage. According to the Convention, each of the parties shall ban
the full or partial relocation of the protected monument except when
this step is made for the protection of the monument.
In early XX century, before the revolution, the Afrikyans’ building
was an urban club visited by well- known politicians, entrepreneurs,
artists and foreign guests. In 2004 the building was sold to a private
company by the Municipality. Industrialists Arakel and Tigran Afrikyan
allocated big funds for schools and for road construction. Moreover,
they built a water pipeline in Yerevan, which supplied the residents
of Yerevan with drinking water.