Café owners, employees block intersection in protest of Yerevan City Hall’s dismantling action

12:32,

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Protestors demonstrating against the Yerevan City Hall’s ongoing dismantling of cafes near the Opera House have blocked the Mashtots Avenue – Tumanyan Street intersection in downtown.

Protesters include both owners and employees of the cafes.

A group of demonstrators were seen blocking the major intersection by laying or sitting in the middle of it. Yerevan police are trying to negotiate and open the street.

The demonstrators are demanding the City Hall to cancel its decision, saying they will become unemployed.

The City Hall had initially notified the cafes earlier in December of 2018 that the city is halting its lease contracts.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS