Merchants in Alaverdi, a mining town of some 13,000 in Armenia’s northern Lori Province, aren't convinced that the municipality’s plans to build a new AMD 6.9 million marketplace is in their best interest.

Many, it seems, don’t want to move from their current site, near the apartment buildings in the town’s HayPetShin neighborhood overlooking the river.

The merchants say they have no reason to move from the area that has served them well for the past twenty years.

Building the new marketplace, near the town’s Sayat Nova Park, was part Alaverdi’s 2018 urban renewal plan drafted by Karen Paremuzyan, the town’s former mayor.

Paremuzyan, however, never ran for reelection in 2017 after the Alaverdi municipality was enlarged.

Residents near the park opposed the marketplace’s construction, arguing that it would be too noisy. They made their position known to Sasoun Khechumyan, who had been elected Alaverdi’s new mayor.

Khechumyan was planning to allocate AMD 12 million to build the marketplace, the money having been received from a government environmental subsidy.

A new site for the market had to be found.  In January of this year the Alaverdi Municipal Council allotted a 250 square meter site on the east side of Spandaryan Street.

Work at the site, which falls within the sanitary corridor of the Alaverdi Coper Smelter, began in February.

The town had planned to spend AMD 9.9 million on the new market but wound up spending only 6.9 million.

Merchants argue there isn’t much foot traffic on Spandaryan. The railroad tracks lie six meters to one side, hindering access. When the smelter was operating, dump trucks would use the street to haul copper ore.

The tin structure measures 20 meters in length by 7 in width. It has windows, which will not open, and two toilets inside. One for men, the other for women. There are no plans for a waste disposal system for the toilets.

“The windows won’t open. The toilets were installed inside, in a corner. It wouldn’t have looked good to put them outside. They won’t have waste sewers. There’s a septic hole outside. We signed a contract with the water and sewer utility. When the hole fills up, they’ll come and empty it,” said Valerik Minasyan, Head of the Municipality’s Division of Construction.

Merchant Armineh Mikayelyan wants nothing to do with the new market.

“Why should I have to pay a fee to get a stall in the new market? It’s not convenient for me. And it’s dangerous. You have the railroad tracks and the street.”

Roza Vardevanyan-Mikoyan, another merchant, agreed. “I have no intention of leaving,” she says, adding that she’s been at the current site for almost twenty years.

Another merchant, who wished to remain anonymous, suggested that the municipality regain control of the old marketplace on Tumanyan Street that was privatized by former Lori Governor Artur Nalbandyan, Tumanyan Electrical Network Director Ashot Shakaryan, and Lalvar Stone Quarry owner Taron Abgaryan.  

The old structure now houses the Kata Supermarket. 

Clearly, sanitary conditions at the market and the market’s location, in terms of commercial feasibility, were not priorities when Mayor Khechumyan signed off on the project.

Municipal Council Member Artrush Abelyan said that the mayor never told the council that the toilets were to be built inside.

“He said that the plan was to build them outside, some distance away from the market.”

Municipal Council Member Vigen Karyan says he approved the marketplace project without even studying the plans. Karyan claims that the mayor also told him the toilets would be built outside.

“That’s why I voted in favor of the project. Besides, all the land in Alaverdi has been sold. You can’t find any available sites.”