At around 2pm yesterday, Avag Shin restarted its illegal construction at the 106/1 Nalbandyan Street site.

Bulldozers and excavators started to dig at the spot where just the other day neighbourhood children had staged a mini-protest against the destruction of their backyard.

When MP's and community activists reached the site and asked to see proper documentation for the work, the construction crew chief pulled out Permit N23/35-20, issued by the Yerevan Central Administration. It allows Avag Shin to go ahead and complete the construction of a multi-residential building.

Residents, however, said that they were awaiting a work stoppage order from the Ministry of Urban Construction that was issued by the inter-departmental working group set up by the RA Prime Minister.

For some mysterious reason, the document never made it to the residents. Instead, Heritage Party MP Anahit Bakhshyan personally tracked it down and obtained it at the Ministry.

The document was then shown to the Avag Shin representatives at the site. Neither they nor the police took any action to stop the work as required by the Ministry's document N25/2385-11 dated May 26, 2011.

It seems that the company and law enforcement are going ahead with the construction based on the earlier N23/35-20 municipal permit.

There are some interesting points related to this permit.

It refers to a multi-residential building project but, according to the Yerevan Municipality's Department of Architecture and Urban Construction, there are no blueprints for such a project on file.

A number of area residents wanted to dig deeper into this suspicious municipal construction permit. They were put in touch with Armenak Dovladyan of the Greens Party of Armenia who tried to arrange a meeting with the government agencies involved.

The residents were told that Gagik Gyanjumyan, Head of the Kentron Administrative District, and his deputy were away on business and not available.

Later on some plainclothes police arrived on the scene and stated that the construction was legal. They declared that residents had no right to impede the installation of sewage pipelines for the planned high-rise

An elite high rise building with all the elite trappings - even modern sewage pipes that will transport all that elite waste down the pipes of the common folk living in the shadow next door.

And all this in the name of "eminent domain"; the alleged public good...

"Our City" Public Initiative