Citing yesterday’s collapse of a building under construction in Yerevan’s Ring Park as yet further proof of the municipality’s policy of allowing urban development to run amuck in the Armenian capital, destroying the architectural fabric of the city, a group of civic groups have singled out past and current officials as directly complicit in the process.

The groups state that former Yerevan mayors Yervand Zakharyan, Gagik Beglaryan and Karen Karapetyan, along with current mayor Taron Margaryan, have permitted such illegal construction and have little understanding of what rational urban planning entails.

The civic groups point to yesterday’s collapse of an illegal building as a prime example of such negligence and indifference.

The Yerevan Municipality’s Press Office has since stated that the developers of the building in question had been fined 2 million AMD. The fine was paid and construction continued.

The groups argue that the municipality appears more interested in collecting fines than implementing practical steps to enforce the laws on the books.