YEREVAN. – Yerevan Municipality Utilities Department representative Hovik Aharonyan on Wednesday invited the participants of the ongoing sit-in across the city building to join this Saturday’s “Cleaner Yerevan” program.

Karlen Ghazaryan, Head of the Yerevan Municipality Utilities Department, informed the aforesaid in his Facebook account.

“There is still no response from the activists. Let us hope they will participate in this publically beneficial and municipal event,” he added.   

In this connection, sit-in participant Vahagn Minasyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that such proposal was made to them on Wednesday, but they did not accept it. 

“We are staging a sit-in; the three of us will not take part [in it]. But the [other] activists themselves should decide to whether or not participate [in it],” Minasyan said.  

To note, the “Cleaner Yerevan” is a program, which is an initiative of Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan and includes volunteers, and Saturday sanitary cleaning is carried out at the public green spaces of the city, since June 22. The next event of the “Cleaner Yerevan” program will be held on Saturday, in the surrounding area of Yerablur Military Pantheon. 

The three activists—who had started their sit-in on July 26—have several demands, which include the dismissals of Municipality Transport Department Chief Henrik Navasardyan and Yerevan Trans Company Director Misak Hambardzumyan.     

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, the Yerevan Municipality recent decision to increase the public transport fares in the city had brought about outbursts, several groups were formed in the social networks, and the initiatives were staging protests and distributing pamphlets against this decision. In addition, the Free Car initiative was launched, along the lines of which Armenia’s numerous well-known personalities, MPs, and ordinary residents were providing—with their own vehicles—free transportation to the people.

And on July 25, Mayor Taron Margaryan suspended the decision on the fare hike; but the wave of the aforesaid movement is still alive. The activists demand that the persons, who made the decision on raising the transport fares, be brought to account, and those officials, who used violence against and cursed at the activists, be punished.