The series of interviews held in the streets, squares, parks, and yards is an attempt to get informed about the opinions and ideas circulating in different social groups, and at the same time to promote the process of rethinking and redefining the above-mentioned concepts.

The first years of independence were characterized by the desire to erase the unwanted traces of the Soviet Union and in doing so to nationalize the history of the city and its territory. By renaming the squares, the streets, the buildings and other places, by removing statues and replacing them with new ones, it was attempted to reflect the national historical past on the surface of the city in the face of glorious ancestors and great events.

From the perspective of addressing the above-mentioned questions and particularly discussing the relationship between Yerevan’s socialist past and the present processes, two monumental buildings should be paid special attention to: Mother Armenia (together with the Victory park) and the monument dedicated to the 50th university of Soviet Armenia (together with the entire area of Cascade) with their similarities and differences.

These can be very briefly described in the following manner: both being full of signs of the Soviet ideology have essentially lost their monumental discourse dimension: their aphorisms inseparable from socialist utopias have mostly been changed or have become unreadable. Yet the former is better connected with the Soviet past and the post-Soviet period interferences are more related to the efforts of nationalizing the territory or conserving what can be perceived as socialistic. While the second can be described as one of Yerevan’s extraordinary places which, in the cultural sense, is subject to constant interventions of westernization, preserving the environment created by replicating the Soviet monumentalism and the elements of national architecture.

They call for the conscious public not to let the illegal exploitation of our natural resources and take part in the decision-making processes concerning our life.

On December 21, 13:00  interested people were invited to Mashtots park for presenting the current situation in details.

The members of Civic Initiative for Protection of  Teghut  presented the current situation, the illegalities revealed and the actions planned from civic platform.

The Civic Initiative for Protection of Teghut  also presented the manifest and principles of the initiative and called for active participation and support of the society.

Further a march to the RA Prosecutor’s Office was implemented where the initiative passed publicly the materials to the Special Investigation Service by demanding to investigate the case for punishing those who’re guilty.

The priority principles of the Civic Initiative for Protection of Teghut;

1. to stop the exploitation of Teghut mine
2. to recover the damage
3. to punish the authorities responsible for illegal decisions and private companies who were involved in the criminal project of Teghut
4. to eliminate the corruption in mining industry

See the Manifesto of the Initiative

At the same time, the exploitation of natural resources in Armenia, the destruction of nature in support of underground mining industries, particularly, the illegal deforestation of Teghut, reaches alarming numbers.

A Monument to the Martyred Trees project enables us to simultaneously address the above-mentioned two spheres and to create a new edge of communication for discussions.
The  dozens of  tree logs  brought to the Northern Avenue, Yerevan, created the Monument to the Martyred Trees.

The event took place within the framework of the project “Public Talks”

08.10.2012

A March 13:00 from the Isahakyan Statue to the Moscow Cinema

Women’s Resource Center , Women’s Support Center, Huysi Kamurj, PINK, IWPR

08.09.2012

By buying agricultural products from the villagers of  the Teghut and Schnogh communities, each of us helps to prevent the threatening exploitation and robbery of the residents of rural communities by mining companies.

Today, the situation in Armenia is such that the only argument for requesting permission to exploit yet another mine is the difficult socio-economic state of the local residents and the necessity of creating new jobs, while other ways of developing the region are not considered.

The local residents have to or are forced to accept the mining industry as the only opportunity to take care of their family troubles, realizing well that the mine will endanger their and their children’s health, and when the exploitation of the mine is over, the whole area will turn into a dead zone, where it will no longer be possible to carry out agricultural or any other activity.

The sale of agricultural products initiative is aimed at giving the residents of the Teghut community the opportunity to sell their products without any intermediaries and commissions, to develop autonomous economies, to have a decent, long-term job, without endangering one’s health and future