Many people remember the public toilet near the Opera House. When the Soviet Union fell apart, this restroom did, too. It was out of order for years, and became a gathering place for homeless people. On August 14, 2002, Yerevan Mayor Albert Bazeyan (decision # 1006) granted the public toilet and an adjacent 650-square-meter plot of land in the park near the Opera House to Atlas, Ltd. to “reconstruct the toilet (italics mine), and build an outdoor café and recreation zone”.

Of course, no one has supervised the construction of a public toilet, especially seeing as the public park as such doesn’t exist anymore. Atlas, Ltd. has thus far built the Astral Club caf? here. No one knows what is planned for the upper part of this underground structure, since the approved design has already been violated and walls higher than those specified by the design have already been erected. Perhaps the construction will take an unexpected turn and the owners will decide, say, to build their private residences on the upper floors. And now let’s see why this company was granted such a privilege.

The company’s shareholders are Tigran Ghalumyan and Armen Stepanyan.

On September 11, 2002, by Robert Nazaryan’s decision # 1553-A, an additional 600-square-meter plot of land, attached to the 650-square-meters already allocated, was granted to Atlas, Ltd. for 25 years to build an underground club.

Some people may remember former mayor Robert Nazaryan’s sentimental speeches about his - “a hometown boy’s” - love of Yerevan, the Opera House, the Hrazdan Gorge, etc. But in between his speeches he managed to sell off Yerevan’s green zones centimeter by centimeter, and justify it with various laws, instructions, and decisions… As to the damage to the state caused by the mayor’s giving away so much land in the Opera and Circle parks, we will provide you with reports in further publications.