Viktor Mnatsakanyan, who heads the Yerevan’s Kentron District, says the municipality will go ahead with plans to demolish several cafes near the Opera House despite protests by business owners and their employees.

Mnatsakanyan today claimed that most of the protests were being directed from the outside but failed to specify from where or by whom.

Arriving on the scene today, Mnatsakanyan said that demolition work would be halted for thirty minutes to review the situation and answer questions posed by the scores of irate café employees and others gathered near Liberty Square.

Mnatsakanyan claimed that some cafes in the area have agreed to hire workers facing unemployment.

A brief shoving match between protesters and police occurred when two young men climbed atop one of the bulldozers brought to the site.

Several MPs – Naira Zohrabyan, Arman Abovyan, Sisak Gabrielyan – asked Mnatsakanyan if a compromise solution could be reached.

He responded in the negative.