Too much work to do in Gyumri: Armenia’s second largest city celebrates holiday today
Armenia’s second largest city, Gyumri, is celebrating its holiday on Saturday. For those familiar with the local problems, the day is of a symbolic significance, as it offers them a unique chance to evaluate achievements and losses.
Vahan Tumasyan, the president of the local NGO Shirak Center, says a major challenge remains the splitting between social groups stemming from moral-psychological differences.
As a serious problem, he pointed out to the self-isolation of families living without a permanent shelter since the 1988 earthquake. He said those families have already developed psychological complexes, shunning community and public events.
Tumasyan said he regrets that 26 years after the disaster, the problem still remains unresolved and no longer of interest to the Armenians and people worldwide. What’s even worse, he added, the difficulties have deepened, without further hopes for betterment. “While downtown Gyumri has improved to a certain extent, and we see a progress in the psychological atmosphere in terms of crimes, it wasn’t the change that would alter life in the wagon districts, especially ahead of winter. Even Christmas is not a holiday for them, let alone the city day,” he added.
Speaking of the achievements, he cited the positive changes in the municipal authorities’ work. “They aren’t, of course, the authorities I dream of, but considerable changes have taken place, both qualitative and moral, and in other respects. The city’s central streets have improved. And in terms of corruption, the situation in our city is now better than in other cities and towns in Armenia. Waste disposal is well-arranged and the city has lighting,” he noted.
As for the holiday’s significance for Gyumri residents, Tumasyan said he observes certain activeness in city on this day. “In other cities, when I see a traffic jam, I get nervous, but feel very happy to see it in Gyumri and to know that people live in the city. And the same goes for events whenever I see that there are people here. But the most important thing is to arrange the events in a way that would attract the entire city. And for that, we need considerably serious work. And the positive thing is that we normally have guests visiting the city to liven up life, and there is a little trade,” Tumasyan added.
President of the journalists’ club Asparez Levon Barseghyan says he sees more problems rather than tangible achievements in Gyumri. “The fountains which they have repaired in the square is opening tomorrow; we had champions this year. But the state authorities’ attitude didn’t essentially change, as everything remained in the context of formal arrival-departures and ribbon-cutting. But they are aware of the problems in the city,” he said.
Barseghyan further shared his concerns over the homelessness problem and poverty. “Every seventh person in Gyunri is a resident of a wagon today, with every second being poor. Ninety-five of each 100 wagon residents is impoverished. The city is all in all plunging [into misery]. As for the achievements which we now enjoy, they are the fruits of the last Soviet investments; we’ll have no more of this in five years,” he added.
Speaking to Tert.am, the regional governor of Shirak, Felix Tsolakyan, said they have carried out considerable work to improve streets, but agreed that a lot more still needs to be done to achieve more changes.
“One of our achievements is that 430 families will be provided with apartments. New facilities have been launched; a school building was constructed and handed over to operation quite recently. A lot new can be said about the city, but we still have quite a lot of work in terms of job creation and handling the emergency buildings,” he added.
Asked about the message of the day, Tsolakuyan said he sees that the holiday is of special significance for every resident of Gyumri. “People in Gyumri will have quite a good fun that day. Events will be held in different places: a street will be named after [Gyumri-born great poet] Hovhannes Shirraz; there will be an exhibition and opening of fountains, artistic speeches and a bakery festival,” he said, expressing hope that festivities raising the people’s spirit will be of great help for future positive changes.
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