“This is Yerevan, where you are at home, where everyone waits for you and still remembers you…”
Ruben Hakhverdyan
Last Sunday we celebrated the 2787-th anniversary of our beloved city Yerevan. The history of this celebration started in 1968, when the Soviet Armenian government of the time decided to celebrate the 2750-th anniversary of Yerevan. I don’t remember how that day was celebrated, but I know that the 2750 fountains on the territory between the Republic square and Shahumyan square were presented to our city during that celebration. Later, when different countries of the Soviet Union started to celebrate their city day (Tbilisi celebrated as Tbilisoban, Moscow as the day of Moscow, etc.), citizens of Yerevan started to do the same thing, which was called Erebuni-Yerevan. Let’s leave the good and bad things of this celebration and speak about modern day Yerevan. First of all, it is worth to mention, that the advertisement of this celebration day was very much like advertising a taxi service; the name of that taxi service is “Yerevan” and the number is supposed to be 27-87. If today, the drivers of actual taxi services are ex-engineers and economists, scientists and teachers who have received a good education, the drivers “of Yerevan” are really ex taxi drivers. Anyway, that is how I look at it. The proof of that was the concert, which seemed to be a plenum of the communists’ party in the last century or a concert of 60’s in the Culture palace of Shamshadin (a remote region). Of course, I can’t blame anyone, because the organizers show what they have seen during their childhood. Only they call the former “salute” as “fireworks” now. But this is not so important, because these are small problems, but most importantly, it is easy to solve them. I’d like to speak about problems, which may become fatal. I am not against the reconstruction of our city and would like it to look like a capital of the 21- century. I don’t mean the “elite buildings”, which is spoken about much (I hope some state officers at least learned who is Pavstos Buzand in connection with this, on the other hand I am sure that this sounds like a foreign swear-word). I’d like to speak about simple things. Every time when I look for a trashcan to throw my cigarette or my child’s chocolate candy wrapper, I pronounce swear words and remember the “loser-drivers” of Yerevan. Drinking water from the drinking fountains on the streets is a legend already, which is going to be told to the future generations of Yerevan, because some “stupid businessmen” sell bottled water and these drinking fountains are not in their business interests. Of course, the government doesn’t tax the drinking fountains. But I don’t think that those “businessmen” pay such taxes that it was worth it liquidate those fountains, of which we were proud of and with which our city differed from the other cities in the world. Car parking is one of the worst problems in a lot of cities, but this doesn’t mean that anyone can tie a red lag on their hands, which seems to have been used as “Always Plus”, and collect money from drivers and make the hard traffic of Yerevan harder. I am happy that the heart of our city is being reconstructed and is beautified day by day, but I’d like to remind our state officers (in modern suits but with an old mentality), that elite buildings are not built in the heart of the city in the developed countries of the world, but rather, in suburbs. Usually banks, cafes, clubs, shops, offices, etc. are built in the center. I.e. center is a small city/business center. These are the rules of modern city construction, which are not written by me. Besides that, buildings are not constructed on pavements. In the future that businessan’s children will have to go out directly to the street from their buildings and their colleagues’ big cars are too dangerous for them. Think about these children. I think Yerevan, which used to be called as pink city, where people used to speak with the dialect of Yerevan, is buried in the past. For example, the vineyards and Astafyan street were left in he past; now they built the “Central Committee” and other buildings. Today, Yerevan is more gray than pink, where people speak with “gray” dialect. And if the citizens of Yerevan cannot make the outsiders live by their rules, they will have to live by the rules of the outsiders. This is a decree of nature. Read the works of Darwin and live your lives in a way, which will let our children, the future citizens of Yerevan, live in a city of which they can be proud and tell their children about that city with pleasure. And due to my position (I mean that I am an optimist) I have no doubts about that.
A.K., Armenian, who was born in Yerevan and has never left it.