A few days Hetq reported that scores of tress had been chopped down on the shore of the Lake Sevan peninsula to make way for a public beach. Sevan police were alerted and halted the felling due to a lack of any permit.

The Minister of Nature Protection personally visited the site on May 11 and told the local cops that he had personally ordered the tress to be cleared. He instructed the crew to go ahead with the beach construction.

The question remains whether the official has the authority to issue a directive for such construction in a national park like Sevan.