The fixed annual price of on-street parking in the city’s central Kentron administrative district will jump from 12,000 drams to 160,000 drams ($400) starting next month. Mayor Tigran Avinian pushed the unpopular measure through the Council of Elders with the effective help of a notorious video blogger wanted by Armenian law-enforcement authorities.
The main official purpose of the measure is to reduce mounting traffic congestion in Kentron. The two main opposition groups represented in the council dismissed that rationale, saying that the municipal authorities should address a continuing lack of public buses in the Armenian capital before collecting much higher fees from motorists.
“Is our public transport fleet big enough to enable people to go to the city center by bus instead of paying 160,000 drams? I think the answer is obvious: it’s not,” said Hayk Marutian, a former mayor whose National Progress party finished second in recent municipal elections.
Council members representing the radical opposition bloc Mayr Hayastan, which came in third, were even more critical, calling the price hike a “plunder.” A group of its activists picketed the municipality building early in the morning in protest.
Avinian, who is affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, countered that proceeds from the much higher parking charges will finance the purchase of 30 new buses planned by him.
Mayr Hayastan and National Progress boycotted the beginning of the council session in a bid to prevent the legislative body from making a quorum and thus scuttle the price hike. However, councilors representing blogger Vartan Ghukasian’s Public Voice party did not join the boycott, allowing Civil Contract and its coalition partner to easily push the measure through. Some Mayr Hayastan councilors reacted furiously to that, accusing Ghukasian of secretly collaborating with the Armenian government despite his opposition rhetoric.
A former police officer nicknamed Dog, Ghukasian emigrated to the United States about a decade ago. He has since attracted large audiences with his hard-hitting YouTube videos on political developments in Armenia spiced up with foul language. Earlier this year, law-enforcement authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Ghukasian and arrested his associates in Armenia on charges of blackmail, extortion and fraud.
Ghukasian’s loyalists already helped Civil Contract install Avinian as Yerevan mayor in October after the ruling party fell well short of a majority in the council in the September 17 vote. They refused to back potential opposition candidates for the post of mayor and blocked an opposition attempt to force a repeat election.