YEREVAN. – Even though has not yet gone through the inauguration procedure—which will take place on Saturday, mayor-elect Hayk Marutyan has actually assumed the office of Mayor of Yerevan and started performing his respective duties, Hraparak (Square) newspaper reported.

“According to our information, one of the first things [of his] to do was the studying and greatly cutting down the program of the Yerevan 2800th anniversary celebration.

“We were told that 1 billion and 700 million drams [approx. $3,510,475] were previously intended for the festival, [but] Marutyan canceled most of the events—reducing the costs to until 300 million drams [approx. $619,495].

“He had a wish to reduce even more, but some of the money had already been spent, the contracts—concluded,” wrote Hraparak.