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Yeranuhi Soghoyan

Hotel or Concert Hall? What Will Gyumri Mayor Do to the Fortress He Owns?

The fate of Gyumri’s Sev Ghul (Black Sentry) fortress, dating to the 1830s, is a topic of rampant local speculation.

Recent renovation work on the site, owned by Gyumri Mayor Samvel Balasanyan (photo) has led to rumors that the fortress might be turned into a hotel-restaurant complex. When the story broke, Balasanyan neither confirmed nor denied such a possibility.

Later, a report appeared in the press that the Russian built fortress would be converted into a concert hall.

The fact that a metal addition has appeared on the fortress roof last summer has further incited such rumors. Photos taken by someone who managed to evade security patrols that appeared on the internet, show that the interior of the fortress has also been changed.

And the changes are more in line with a hotel-restaurant than a concert hall.

The former owner had wanted to convert the site into a museum to spur tourism to Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city.

Last December Hetq contacted Balasanyan about the construction work at the fortress. At the time, he said that walls had been elevated for reinforcement purposes and added that officials from the Ministry of Culture had visited the site. Everything was in order, he claimed.

“It will not be turned into a hotel, as the rumors go, but a festival center. It will be a beautiful structure that can hold 1,500. It might have a room to rest in and a place to eat; I can’t say, Balasanyan told Hetq.

Regarding the changes to the historical site, architect Sashur Kalashyan told Hetq that he had met with Balasanyan and that the owner wanted to build a hotel.

Kalashyan claims that he tried to talk Balasanyan out of the idea and that he should rather convert the fortress into a museum.

The architect says that Balasanyan responded by saying that he didn’t have a problem with the museum proposal but that he also wanted tourists to be able to spend the night there as well.

“I told him no. If they spend the night, you’ll also have to install toilets and showers, and that would mean altering the entire structure. He also wanted to build an enclosure over the courtyard,” says Kalashyan.

After being elected Gyumri mayor in 2012, Balasanyan decided to create a council of architects that included Gurgen Museghyan and Sashur Kalashyan. They had served as the chief architects of Leninakan (Gyumri’s name in the Soviet era) and knew the issues of the town quite well.

Kalashyan, who served as chief architect from 1976 to 1994, immediately went to work preparing all the legal documentation necessary to resolve the urban and architectural issues facing Gyumri. But his work came to a halt one day when he received a phone call from Mayor Balasanyan saying that there was no money in the municipal coffers to proceed with the project.

Kalashyan also drafted the charter of the architects’ council based on the Yerevan model. It was never ratified when he was a member. He says the council met two or three times but that it was more for show than real work.

Kalashyan couldn’t tell me much about what’s going on at the fortress today because he has no real information. All he did say was that he couldn’t cite one example of such a structure located overseas being converted into a hotel.

“Even the positions of guns and cannons at the fortress have remained the same as when they used to be fired. All the structures at the fortress are considered architectural treasures that have retained their original form. But here, where the profit motive dominates and spiritual values are shunted aside, we get what we get,” Kalashyan says.

On April 23, a public hearing took place in Gyumri regarding the blueprint modifying the fortress into a cultural center. The only ones in attendance were employees from the Gyumri public library, the director of one NGO, a few representatives from the local arts academy and one news outlet. The two local TV stations, two weeklies and one daily newspaper never received invitations.

Participation by broad segments of the public at the hearing seems to have been overlooked as well. This stands in stark contrast to other events organized by the municipality when the press and public are provided information in advance, either by telephone calls or through the internet.

The Gyumri Municipality, in response to the complaints regarding insufficient public outreach, points to the fact that the municipality’s website posted an announcement regarding the hearings on April 2.

In fact, the website’s announcement was quite thorough and concise, stating that a public hearing on the project seeking to convert the Sev Ghul’s southern fortress into a cultural center would take place on April 23 at the Stil art gallery at 2pm.

So, it would appear that the librarians, the art academy workers and the reporter from the one news outlet who attended the hearing were the only ones in town who faithfully follow the municipality’s website.

However, according to information obtained by Hetq, those who attended were actually handpicked and others were informed a mere ten minutes before the hearings got underway.

In the end, it would seem that Mayor Balasanyan, the owner of Sev Ghul, did the bare minimum in terms of public outreach. We can only assume that he didn’t consider doing more to be in his best interest.

Comments (3)

pol
Heriq a tuyn tapeq.mi bani el havatatseq,da kpoxi qarqqi demqy,kta qarqrin nor imidj,kkarorana hravirel ev antskatsnel tasnyak forumner,hamergner.hin berdi nor kyanqy,aveli aktiv u burn.
Armen
Հին Գյումրու բոլոր շենք-հուշարձանները ավերակված վիճակում են, առավել գեղեցիկ շինություններ կործանվում ու ոչնճանում են: ՆույնՍեվ ղուլի հետնամասում նման 3 ոչ պակաս բերֆեր շինաղբով են պատված ու ամեն օր քարերն են քանդում, բայց ոչ մեկի պետքը չէ....այս մի շինությունը գոնե քաղաքի համար վերականգնվում է: Իրոք նախանձությունը կործանելու է հայ ազգին...
Melo
When reading the article on Sev Ghoul proprietor Mr. Balasanian before I remembered the building to belong to Adamyan Hayk, rest in peace. Buisnessman from Moscow. It's sad to know his dream to see the fortress surrounded by a replica of a Tsar epoch village, on the slopes of the hill next to the museum of II World War in Mayr Hayastan as in Haghtanak Zbosaygi in Yerevan. This could be a lively idea.

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