At its sitting today the Municipal Council of Yerevan, besides others, discussed the issues of conferring the honorary title of freeman of Yerevan on Head of the Nork-Marsh community Varazdat Mkrtchyan. The Council held a stormy debate.

“No one can say the opposite. During their 11-year-long activities the prefects have made a great contribution. I think it is in conformity with moral principles to have a freeman of Yerevan as head of community,” said Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan.

Armen Hakobyan of the Prosperous Party of Armenia was the only person to oppose the Mayor’s initiative. Naming the outstanding figures that were made freeman of Yerevan (Victor Hambartsumyan, Charles Aznavour, Yuri Luzhkov and Boris Yeltsin), he called on the participants to listen to the “voice of conscience” instead of “giving political preferences.” “Today we have to appreciate or depreciate the honorary title of freeman of Yerevan,” he said.

In response, Mayor Beglaryan said that most of the persons mentioned by Hakobyan were awarded the title for political reasons. “Now I want to confer this title on the persons who really contribute to the development of Yerevan. Next time this title will be warded to the builder, driver, tree planter and scientist who have really played an important role in Yerevan’s life,” Beglaryan said.

Varazdat Mkrtchyan has been head of the Nork-Marsh community since 1999.