Summarizing the results of the struggle and civil efforts for public parks in Yerevan in the past 18 months, “We are the Masters of This City” civil initiative calls on Yerevan Municipality and Council of Elders to increase financing for maintenance and care of the city’s public parks in the 2012 budget of Yerevan. Besides, the civil initiative points out the positive and negative changes in recent months. It particular, it is said that “while appreciating the care of Yerevan’s green zones and the dismantlement of unauthorized buildings in those zones in recent period, we note with regret that Yerevan residents warn about the appearance of new structures in various parts of the city – at the expense of green zones, which is a worrying fact. Very often officials of Yerevan Municipality and the Ministry of Nature Protection respond to damage done to public parks only after persistent efforts of citizens. Violations of Yerevan’s Master Plan are also numerous”. According to a press release of the initiative, the damage done to public parks of the city and the decline in their number is also a great obstacle to attraction of investments for Yerevan. The recent urban development projects continue to cause concern as their main criteria are business interests and implementation of controversial projects on construction of hotels and administrative buildings at the expense of Tamanian’s garden-city project, historical identity of Yerevan and its architectural originality.

---