Film vs Memory: Vanadzor’s Artsakh Park is sold to a cinema company

The Artsakh Park in Vanadzor symbolized the liberation and independence of Artsakh for the city’s residents. Soon, it will be turned into an entertainment space with a large film theater.

In 2005, the city authorities received an offer from Cinema Moscow Ltd. to sell the park. The following year half of the park, some 5,000 square meters, in the center of Vanadzor was sold to Moscow Cinema Ltd. (which belongs to Paradise Company)
  Many residents asked “why the park?” when they learned of the sale, having not forgotten the land’s original purpose. The Artsakh Park is included in an official list of protected monuments to the history and culture of Armenia, as a monument of local importance since the 1980s.
  “Here rallies in support of the Artaskh liberation war and the independence of Armenia were held,” reads the commentary in the official list.
  Citizens of Soviet Armenia used the platform in Artsakh Park to call for independence and the reunification of Karabakh with Armenia. The bodies of seven soldiers from Vanadzor in the Karabakh war were taken to the cemetery from this park. (Rallies for freedom continued in Artsakh Park last year also, since the park served as platform for opposition activities.)
  However, Vanadzor’s mayor Samvel Darbinyan did not take account of the demands of local residents to preserve the park as a symbol of the Karabakh war. The land was sold at auction in 2006 for 1,441,000 drams (then about ,000).
The only participant in the auction was Cinema Moscow Ltd. That fact remained unknown to many of Vanadzor’s residents including the monument conservation specialists.
  Hrachik Marukyan, a researcher at the Lori provincial service of historic environment conservation, says: “The park is part of the history of the Karabakh movement and is of [historic] value. Building a cinema will mean having a history of cinema, while denying the inspired movement.”
  Lawyer Karen Tumanyan, a member of the Lawyers’ Chamber of Armenia, says the sale violates the Constitution, the Land Code and the Law on Conservation and Use of Immobile Monuments of History and Culture and Historic Environment.
  The park was sold by a decision of the mayor without approval of the city council. The chapter of the Constitution on local self-administration says that the powers of local administrations are shared between the head of the community and the council.
  “The decision of the mayor is unconstitutional without the knowledge of the council,” the lawyer says of Darbinyan’s decision.
  Besides, he says, Article 60 of the Land Code stipulates that objects of historic and cultural value in the property of community are not subject to privatization.
  Moreover, Tumanyan qualifies the plans to construct a cinema on the property as a change in purpose of the monument. Even if the law permits using the monument and its territory, it demands that the character and purpose of the monument are preserved.
  Article 38 of the Law on Conservation and Use of Immobile Monuments of History and Culture and Historic Environment states: “The use of monuments for economic and other purposes is permitted if the use conforms to its character, does not damage the safety of the monument, does not detract or pervert its historic, scientific or artistic value.”
  Armen Geryan, head of the Lori provincial service for conservation of the historic environment, does not consider the sale of the park illegal. Geryan says that the Artsakh case has government permission.
  Tigran Papanyan, head of architecture and urban-planning at the municipality of Vanadzor justifies the transfer of a local monument to a private enterprise by the necessity for a modern cinema in the city.
  There is no cinema in Vanadzor. The Yerevan Cinema that used to operate in Soviet times does not exist any more. The demands of film lovers in Vanadzor are satisfied only by the House of Culture, which contains cinema halls.
  Norayr Azatyan, deputy director of the Moscow Cinema, says that purchasing the area instead of renting it is a safer way to run a business. The design project for the future cinema is ready, providing advanced digital equipment in two halls with 250 and 50 seats.
  Azatyan dismisses criticism that the Artsakh Park is a local monument and asserts that the company has bought the territory in line with the law. The cinema building in the center of the park will cover an area of 800 square meters and the rest of the territory will be improved.
  He asserts that the cinema in Vanadzor will be as good as the Moscow Cinema in Yerevan, giving film-lovers an opportunity to watch the first runs of films imported into Armenia.
  www.armenianow.com
  By Naira Bulghadaryan
ArmeniaNow Vanadzor reporter