The “2×2” bar-club located on Khanjyan street belongs to MP of the National Assembly “Republican” group Armen Purtoyan. The bar-club has not corresponded to the norms of urbanization and has turned into a dangerous building for residents living in that area. It is located in the basement of the apartment building and has started to fall apart due to the missing columns.
The owner of the bar-club and MP Purtoyan was assigned to strengthen the columns of the bar-club since 2001, however, he kept delaying it and since he has a deputy mandate, he doesn’t care about that anymore. In the beginning, “2×2” was only a bar-café and then turned into a club. After that, the building has been “falling down” more rapidly due to the complaints of the residents of the apartment because they keep hearing loud music every night. Even the residents’ complaints have not made Purtoyan think about strengthening the columns and it has gotten to the point that the residents have started to send protests to the groups in the National Assembly, the Minister of Urbanization and other state bodies.
During an interview with Minister of Urbanization of Armenia Aram Harutyunyan, he talked about the residents’ complaints and said that he has asked the municipality to finish strengthening the columns of the building. However, according to A. Harutyunyan, there was no result.
“As of January, our ministry checked up on the building and saw that the columns had not been strengthened. Once again, we asked the municipality to do something so that the construction will end,” said A. Harutyunyan and added that the municipality has not done what it was supposed to do due to some reasons.
We told him that that should have been done way back in 2001 because the owner of “2×2” was assigned to do that in 2001. A. Harutyunyan said the following:
“I can not say an exact date when he was assigned to do that, however, I can say that we face that problem now. As a matter of fact, the municipality said that the residents had started to complain when work was being done. But we are sure that the work must be completed despite anything.”
In response to our question as to whether or not he had met with the owner of the bar-club and MP Armen Purtoyan, Aram Harutyunyan said:
“I have not talked with him. I don’t know who the club belongs to. I just have an assignment, the building-which needs columns. This is not a personal issue. The columns should be strengthened.”
We also asked the Minster of Urbanization how they punished people who didn’t do what they were assigned and why the MP is not taking on the responsibility.
“The basement bar-club has been made more adequate, but we see that that is not enough,” said A. Harutyunyan.
We reminded the minister that the owner had been warned 5 years ago.
“I don’t know what has happened before that,” said A. Harutyunyan and promised to follow up on the work being done until its finish.