"We will fight this till the end, anyway we can, no matter what. If the law doesn't work, we will resort to force. There is no other way out," say residents of Yerevan's 13 Tumanyan Alley of the nightclub that has made their neighborhood unlivable. After receiving authorization on May 21, 2004 from Gagik Beglaryan, mayor of the Kenton District of Yerevan, to stay open past midnight, a nightclub called Yozhik (little hedgehog) opened for business in the basement of this residential building off Tumanyan Street. According to its license, Yozhik is a cafe. But neighbors maintain that the basement now houses a strip-tease club, and that the connecting construction that went up a few years ago, taking over the lawn and blocking the sidewalk, is illegal.

Residents have gotten little sleep since the nightclub opened. From 11.pm. till dawn, patrons of the club keep them awake with the noise of their cars and cell phones, with their loud conversations and obscenities. "I went downstairs many times and warned them to stop the noise, otherwise I would break everything to pieces. It stopped for ten days. Then it all started again, and it's still going on," says Levon Chukaszyan, who lives in apartment # 20. Pensioner Lilia Karagulyan, who lived alone just above Yozhik, was forced to stay with relatives for two months. In the end she sold her apartment and moved away. The residents have appealed to government officials many times - to the prime minister, the mayor of Yerevan, the police, even to the president's supervision service - asking for their peace and quiet to be restored, but nothing was ever done about it.

"The noise of the cars, cell phones, and swearing is loud and clear. Our bedrooms are on the backyard side, and it's impossible to sleep there. In addition, the buildings across the way are very close and the noise echoes," says Felix Danielyan, who lives on the fourth floor.

Experts from the Health Ministry's State Anti-Epidemic and Sanitary Inspection have visited 13 Tumanyan Alley many times. They have measured the noise level in various apartments, registering that it exceeds permissible limits. The head of the agency's Kentron and Nork-Marash district department, Marietta Hakhverdyan, sent a letter to Yozhik's management advising them to make sound-proofing adjustments by January 15, 2004 in order to avoid administrative sanctions.

According to measurements carried out between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on January 16, 2004, the noise level in the apartments # 3 and # 20 was not over the limit. Residents asked the department to conduct measurements after midnight, but they were turned down. Marietta Hakhverdyan explained that her employees could not stay in peoples' apartments so late, and furthermore, they were not paid for this work.

Explaining why she had never responded to a written inqiry from the lawyer asking whether the club had been sound-proofed, Hakhverdyan said that either she had never received such a letter, or that it had escaped her notice. She noted that she had gone in person to see what work had been done. "I even asked them to send samples of the materials used for sound-proofing. The material was indeed designed for such work and the management had covered the club ceiling with two layers of it. Since then. we haven't received any complaints from the residents."

But that doesn't mean that the noise problem is solved, or the residents have nothing to complain about. No matter how much soundproofing material is used, it can't muffle the noise of the cars, the clamor, and the swearing in the back yard every night.

It's up to the court to decide

T he hearing of the suit brought by the residents of 13 Tumanyan Alley against the Yozhik Nightclub, originally scheduled to take place in the Court of First Instance of the Kentron and Nork-Marash Communities of Yerevan on May 10, 2004, was postponed, because the respondent presented Judge Ohanyan with a document stating that the club manager was ill. At the May 20 th court session, the respondent's lawyer Naira Chikilzyan's first move was to object to the proceedings being photographed. She then presented all the documents related to the club's activity and even described in detail its positive impact on the neighborhood, producing a statement signed by Karen Darbinyan, who owns Apartments # 3 and # 4, located above the night club, in which he asserted that the club's operation during the night hours didn't disturb him.

The judge was not satisfied with the written statement, and called Karen Darbinyan into court. Neighbors say that Darbinyan never actually stays in the apartments he owns, so of course he isn't disturbed. Moreover, Darbinyan intends to turn these apartments into an office, the entrance to which, oddly, will have to pass right over the nightclub. Marietta Hakhverdyan was informed by the Yozhik management that an employee of the club had bought the two apartments, so as not to disturb the neighbors. But Lilia Karagulyan, who recently sold Apartment # 3, insists that the buyer has no connection to Yozhik, Ltd.

But Vanyan's numbers are different

The club also presented the court with a document signed by the head of the State Anti-Epidemic and Sanitary Inspection, A. Vanyan, stating that the measurements carried out on October 13, 2003 in the Apartments # 3, # 4, and # 20 showed that the noise level didn't exceed the permissible levels of sound pressure defined by the sanitary standards. But Levon Chukaszyan stated that he had been told by the people who measure the noise level in his apartment, #20, that it was over the permissible limit.

Emma Manukyan, the lawyer representing the residents, has appealed to Gagik Beglaryan, the mayor of Yerevan's Kentron District, many times, requesting information on who gave permission for the nightclub to be built in the basement of # 13 Tumanyan Alley, and whether the owner of the club is licensed to run such a business. Deputy Mayor Gyanjumyan replied that the district mayor's office is not concerned with licensing, and has no information about the club.

This contradicts information residents received from the Yerevan Mayor's Office, according to which issues related to the sale of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, as well as doing business during night hours are regulated by local self-government agencies. By the way, the licenses to sell alchohol and tobacco that were, in fact, issued by Gagik Beglaryan became invalid on May 19th. Aram Yavrumyan, the head of the Kentron district mayor's department of information sought to clarify exactly which licenses were being talked about in Gyanjumyan's response:

"Mr. Gyanjumyan responded that the district mayor's office is not concerned with the licensing of cafes and night clubs. The district mayor's office gives permission to operate and sell alcoholic beverages and cigarettes during night hours. Therefore, there was no contradiction in the deputy mayor's response," Yavrumyan said.

In response to the latest inquiry from the residents, Gyanjumyan wrote: "Taking into consideration numerous complaints about the activity of Yozhik, Ltd. by the residents of # 13 Tumanyan Alley and the suit brought by the residents against the Yozhik Nightclub in the Court of First Instance of the Kentron and Nork-Marash Communities of Yerevan, the Kentron District Mayor's Office has decided to withhold its permission to Yozhik, Ltd. to operate after 24:00."

During the May 20 th court session, plaintiff Levon Chukaszyan asked that the judge call Marietta Hakhverdyan and Deputy Mayor Gyanjumyan to the court. The judge agreed, and decided to order new noise measurments in the apartments. The trial has been postponed indefinitely.