"Several days ago we held a demonstration to persuade government officials to stop the construction of a café in front of the Chamber Music Hall, but instead of an appropriate response, the construction work intensified," said singer Arax Davtyan angrily. "We have already lost the park near the Opera House and we will not permit another home of the arts to be destroyed. This café must not be built here." Davtyan was speaking on October 21 st at the second event organized to protest the construction of Modern Café. (See also: Modern Café at the Expense of Classical Music)

The coalition SOS Yerevan joined with the musicians to stage the second protest. Jeffrey Tufenkian, the chairman of the NGO Armenian Forests explained, "We established the coalition SOS Yerevan, and the aim of the NGOs and cultural groups involved in the coalition is to fight for the preservation of green areas in Yerevan. Today we have gathered in front of the Chamber Music Hall, but our coalition is concerned about all green areas in Yerevan."

The second meeting was well attended by residents of the neighborhood and others sharing an interest in culture. Suren Abrahamyan, a former mayor who once issued a decision to lease land in this area of Oghakadzev (Circle) Park, was among the protesters. "I feel ashamed in front of people of culture," he said. "In 1998, if my memory does not fail me, it was my decision to lease this land for three years to the company Flora Land. But the land was not leased for construction purposes. It was to improve the appearance, put in better lighting and benches. And, indeed, the company did that. I am not responsible for what happened to this area later. I'm joining the demonstrators here today-I'm in favor of tearing down the café, and I'll tear it down myself," Abrahamyan encouraged people who care about Yerevan to stand up and fight.

Actor Sos Sargsyan agreed. "We have to have a nation-wide fight. Yerevan is losing it's beauty. We can't let this area have the same fate as the area around the Opera House. We have to care about every area, otherwise in future we will inhabit an Armenia that resembles a desert, full of dust, stone and garbage," he said.

According to New York conductor Raffi Svachian, "There aren't as many cafes in the whole of Europe as there are in Armenia. The Armenian people is strong and rich in its culture; the construction of this café is a blow against anyone who cares about the arts. I visit Armenia to give concerts at the Chamber Music Hall. Where will I have a concert next year if this café is built?" He appealed to the government of Armenia to stop the construction: "Do not kill artistic genius. If we weaken culturally, we will die spiritually."

Musicians are afraid that it will be impossible to work at the Chamber Music hall once the Modern Café opens for business. Environmental groups are angry that although they've been working on the issue for five years now, nothing seems to have changed, and parkland continues to disappear.

Karine Danielyan, president of an association called For Sustainable Human Development is deeply concerned about what's going on." The center of Yerevan is no good to live in anymore-it's the most polluted part of the city-so there is no reason to erect so many fancy apartments buildings," she said. "At first the green areas are destroyed, they are not watered or cultivated, and in their place new cafes appear. What level of moral degradation are we going to sink to? These days all we like is restaurants, striptease clubs and casinos. I suggest that the National Assembly hold hearings on the ecological condition in Yerevan, particularly on the parkland. The people of Yerevan are running out of air to breathe."

At the end of the demonstration, when the protestors had already left, I spotted the mayor's advisor, Hrachik Muradyan, walking around near the Chamber Music Hall. I wondered whether he had participated in the protest, or if was on an official visit to the half-built café.

Muradyan asked what the demonstration had been about, and then added that he was looking for the builders to ask them to stop the construction. "The builders have permission for construction, but if people organize an action, the construction process must be terminated to re-consider the issue," he said. When I told him there had been another protest two days earlier and the city hadn't responded, he said he hadn't heard about it, even though all the daily newspapers and several TV channels had covered it. He said he wouldn't have known about this protest either, if he hadn't received a phone call informing him that people were staging a gathering. The mayor's advisor had come to see what was going on. "Now I'll find the builders and ask them to stop the work till we consider the issue," Muradyan said and wandered off.

As the municipality figures out what's going on, the coalition SOS Yerevan is planning successive events aimed at protecting what's left of Yerevan's parks, including a forum to which both coalition members and representatives of various government ministries and departments will be invited and a march from the Chamber Music Hall to the Opera House on October 29 th .

"A city cannot exist without culture, and parks are an inseparable part of that. A tree is culture, too. Today trees and parks are being viciously destroyed," said architect Armen Hakhnazaryan. "If things keep on this way, and we keep our mouths shut about it, then we deserve what happens."