“Foam was smeared on the bench, and the two sculptures likewise were stained with foam. A broken metal chair was put on one of the sculptures. And there was a plastic bag full of empty vodka and brandy bottles beside the sculpture. A huge piece of stone was placed on the mouth of the sculpted woman. According to some Ijevan residents, this, in all probability, is linked to the current political tension in Ijevan, and it is some kind of a ‘message.’ According to the Park’s caretaker, this barbarity was carried out at night, and, in his view, it was intentional. According to an Ijevan Municipal Utility Service manual worker, this simply is ‘enmity.’ In his words, they, led by Mayor Vardan Ghalumyan, had planted seventeen silver firs at the city’s Freedom Fighters’ Square a day earlier, and some were displeased with the tree planting,” Aravot writes.
