Every city has its brand or special image, through which it becomes attractive for the guests and makes the people living in the city proud of their city.
The formation of a positive opinion about the city in the society is an immense incentive for the development of the city. We live in our city and we consider it the best, the most beautiful, unrepeatable, etc. The phenomenon of Yerevan is that we consider it our home and despite the fact that we not always follow the future of using the city we still consider it very emotional just like us. We are even ready to justify the heavy traffic and constant construction in the city. We don’t like biding the rules of the city and often violate it. This is our brand, which is often quite distinct with its “underwater” rhythm and confusion but it is “lively”. The drivers pull over wherever they wish, the pedestrians cross the street from wherever they wish. Regardless of that the city keeps breathing and we breathe with it. Our dignity is being humiliated when over 20 people enter the minibus. That’s when we think that it’s OK, people are rushing home and there are few minibuses nearby. We are trying to be patient and compassionate about the issues and not to harm the peculiar culture of the city. Our dignity is being humiliated when we see that the inauguration of our President is not a holiday for us and that we cannot participate in that holiday (although we would love to take part in the inauguration and feel proud of our newly elected President). The problem was that the city police wouldn’t allow us to freely move in the city. The citizens of the capital city were not allowed approach closer to the Liberty Square near the Opera, where the inauguration was taking place. We understand the necessity of that arrangement. However, one thing is hard to understand why people are not able to leave home whenever they want to and return at a convenient for them hour. And especially those people, who are quite far from politics and know the “culture” of using the city, they don’t litter and don’t provoke the conduct of legal rallies. All they want is go home. Yesterday on April 9 the police wouldn’t let the people enter the blocks of Tumanyan, Teryan and Sayat-Nova streets. They were saying that people can go in only after 4 p.m. After such words the people’s amusement about their city totally gets ruined even among the most pro-government citizens. Thus, you cannot go home, they should tell you when the right time is to go home. Therefore, the idea of city-home disappears immediately. By the way, despite the fact that the Ministry of Education of RA stated that no education institution will cease the classes for the inauguration, however at the school after Nikol Aghbalyan located near the Opera the students were told on April 8 that their classes should be cancelled on the inauguration day. Although it is not legal to violate the order of the Ministry but it’s quite natural (by the way that paradox is the harmony of nowadays) as the roads taking to the school on Teryan and Sayat-Nova streets were closed and the policemen watching those streets were extremely careful. They wouldn’t allow the students enter the school. And many other teachers of the schools of downtown asked the parents not to bring children to classes. At any rate, it wouldn’t be desirable and may have caused gatherings of people. The parents of students decided not to send their children to classes. The people, who suffered the inauguration, are innocent citizens, who unluckily live or work in the center of Yerevan. The policemen were warning the citizens that it is forbidden to walk on the street and very strictly speaking on their portable radio transmitters. They were reporting that the streets were cleaned out from the streets. And it seems that the main task of the police was to “wipe out” the citizens from the streets. And only one policeman allowed the citizen go to the yard of the building with the condition, “Quickly pass under the ribbon as I haven’t seen you.” If the citizen didn’t agree to covertly go under the rib he would possibly not be able to get home. Many people didn’t succeed in getting home. The relations of the citizens and the city immediately are spoilt. Yes they were bent over in the bus and now they have to bend over to get home. If we accept the culture of traveling and walking bent over then we must move with the fact of bending over while breathing. We were all thinking that we are a part of this city and that it belongs to us but it is not so. The ability of freely moving, walking and breathing has been jeopardized since the last month. Yesterday the city was paralyzed because of the holiday.