Within the last two or three months the media periodically discusses the issue of the Armenian “Zvartnots” airport. Two weeks ago the residents of Tairov and Parakar villages dared to close the road and complained about the construction taking place on the road. The road has been periodically transformed since the 90s. For a few years the airport highway had been the only way of communication with the outside world. Since those years the highway has been converted into a specific business center – wholesale stores, depots on the right and left of the highway. Later, when the transport of products was done via railroads the highway “specialized” for furniture. On both sides of the road there were bunches of armchairs, chairs and tables. According to the legislation adopted two years ago the casinos were removed from the city. Most of the casinos have moved on along this highway from the city. I don’t know if there are any tables or billboards with the names of criminals anywhere else in the world. However, when passing along this highway one can enjoy the view of seeing the billboards and tags with the pictures of Al Capone or some other Mafia. Thus all the foreign guests visiting Armenia have been seeing the furniture and the names of the casinos during the past years. This is a highway, which by the criteria of our country was in great condition because it had been repaired every year. Three years ago the road was repaired at the expense of the airport. After that it has been repaired at the expense of the state budget. When the construction on the highway started this summer, everybody was thinking that our government has once again succeeded in persuading Ernekyan to repair the highway. The society didn’t want to and couldn’t believe that it’s being done at the expense of the state budget. The city council has ruined the Komitas, Tigran Mets avenues this summer as well but doesn’t have financial means to repair them. So it wasn’t quite logical that the city council would find necessary means to do the same to the airport highway. But as everybody knows our authorities were born to make the impossible come true. By working day and night on the street in September the authorities were able to complete the restoration of the road. They completed the construction on time and Jacque Chirac himself passed by this highway in September. Then he used the same highway to leave Armenia. After the Independence Day festivities the workers once again got to business. They started the process of destroying the newly restored asphalt of the highway. During this period a lot was revealed. As a response to the public complaint the Airport administration announced that they have nothing to do with the new reconstruction. The government had to accept that they had initiated. It turned out that the government is planning to build a high-speed freeway. This intention wasn’t a new thing for us. Years ago the former chief architect of Yerevan Narek Sargsyan has proposed his version of building a high-speed highway in columns. This expensive project was not approved. In the history of freeways and highways it is the first time that a freeway is constructed in an area that has a 90 degree curve. There are no curves like that even on Formula-1 tracks. Perhaps the reason is that not all the pilots of Formula-1 are like Shumakher, unlike us, who love to drive as fast as Shumakher does in town. The residents of the villages, the owners of the casinos and stores tried to protest. The authorities told the residents there are going to be underground passages on different segments of the fenced freeway. And in fact they are going to build those passages. Unlike all the other passages of the city, the new ones will be for cars, people and animals. Otherwise the villagers wouldn’t be able to take their cattle to browsing areas. The villages would have been isolated from each other because of the fence. I don’t want to be pessimistic but I am inclined to announce that the rural passages are the best improvisation of the anti-utopia genre. Our government officials have probably never been to any city underground passages. The most crowded one of those – the Barekamutyun underground, was extremely unsanitary for years. All the other passages – the Baghramyan street underground passage, downtown passage and the others are more likely to remind us of public lavatories. The water drainage system doesn’t even work in the passages of the capital city. And now such a passage is being built in the village. Therefore it is not very hard to imagine how horrible they will look after they are built. Especially the fact that animals are going to use the passages as well makes the issue sound worse. If somebody decided that the ones, who travel from Yerevan to the airport, must be comfortable on the road, then it should be done that way. No matter how much it is going to cost the community residents. One thing is not clear for sure. Why should the government launch the project so rapidly and spontaneously? Perhaps France is really an influential state and it was necessary to welcome Chirac the best way. But was it worth repairing and then ruining the highway just for his visit? Is somebody going to think about the productive spending of state money? I am starting to think that Armenian state officials are just so good and fast at wasting state money that Shumakher wouldn’t even dream of.
