On March 2 the mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan convened a working meeting, during which the program of rehabilitation and development of Erebuni fortress was discussed. Taking into consideration that a usual program for improvement could be strictly limited in case of Erebuni, at the initiative of the mayor, in order to find a complete historiographical solution to the problem, in addition to responsible officials for various sectors from the Municipality, the director of the Erebuni Museum, historians, archeologists, scientists and specialists of monuments were involved in the working group. The discussion was useful and the mayor Gagik Beglaryan took businesslike attitude. “My goal is to make Erebuni a visiting card of Yerevan as an important historical value of our people. International experience shows that outdoor museums, such as our Erebuni, represent an exceptional interest to humanity. We have to manage to present Erebuni to citizens and guests of our capital in such a way that tourists visiting Armenia learned the history of Armenia through Erebuni and visited first of all this place. In reality we deal with very delicate and important historical structure, and best scientists, specialists and means are necessary for attaining desired results. Fund raising is my task, and proposal of implementation mechanisms is yours. My suggestion is the following: let’s form a joint work team and give a global and fundamental solution to the problem”, – said Gagik Beglaryan addressing to the present.
By decision of the mayor of Yerevan rehabilitation works of Erebuni were started in December of the last year; an initial investigation of the technical condition of the monument has been carried out and the borders of the museum and Erebuni fortress has been clarified during the past period. The exhibited section of the museum is located in the citadel. As presented the director of the museum Gagik Gyurjyan, last years the wooden colonnade of the temple of the god Khald was robbed, the roof of the palace of the king Argishti was caved in partially and wall painting were damaged due to negligence etc. The citadel is composed of three sections: palace, cultic and economy sections, which need to be enforced (of course, keeping the construction principles of Urartian epoch). It is planned to build an amphitheatre looking onto the citadel, where theatrical troupes will perform fragments from the history of foundation of Erebuni fortress and, in general, from the 2971-year history of our capital. “A visitor who enters the Erebuni Museum has to get a full idea as far as possible about what was the town founded by the son of Menua the king Argishti. The rehabilitation program of Erebuni is impossible to begin and accomplish in one or two years, and I am in no hurry in this respect. The personality is often the determinant for us: if there is a personality, then there is work done, and if no personality, then the work stops. I want to create a team for Erebuni: such a team, whose work will not be dependent on personalities. Today we have to lay the foundation of rehabilitation of Erebuni in a way that it will be continued by our children”, – emphasized Gagik Beglaryan. Suggestions were offered during the discussion, and scientists presented their opinions. It was mentioned that during the soviet period, when the Erebuni Museum was founded, many problems did not received well-grounded historical and scientific solutions due to the hurry associated with the soviet planned system. The corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, director of the Institute of History Ashot Melkonyan noted: “Mister Mayor, I welcome your approach to the problem. Unfortunately, we have not had by today sufficient culture of presentation of our ancient and historical values. Today’s your business proposal created confidence that we will achieve results in the rehabilitation of Erebuni. The rehabilitation of the monument, besides its historical and tourist significance, has also political significance to us. It has come to that historians of the neighboring Azerbaijan publish works, where our Yerevan, which they call Erivan, supposedly was “their” historical territory”. The director of the Center for Protection and Rehabilitation of Monuments Ashot Piliposyan proposed to create an Urartian Center in Erebuni within the framework of the rehabilitation program, where cuneiform records of the historical period of Van kingdom will be gathered. There was a suggestion also to move the central entrance of the Museum.
“By understanding the concept of Erebuni we will get a panorama of the Urartian epoch. In case of correct rehabilitation of the monument is will be fully possible”, – thinks the head of the Department of Archeology and Ethnography of the Yerevan State University Hayk Avetisyan. At the suggestion of the mayor Gagik Beglaryan the coordinating council of the rehabilitation program of Erebuni fortress was formed during the discussion, in which the director of Erebuni Museum Gagik Gyurjyan, the director of the Institute of History Ashot Melkonyan, the head of the Department of Archeology and Ethnography of the Yerevan State University Hayk Avetisyan, the director of the Center for Protection and Rehabilitation of Monuments Ashot Piliposyan, the secretary of staff of the Municipality of Yerevan, the chief architect of Yerevan and architects specializing in rehabilitation of monuments were included. By instructions of the mayor the first priority of the coordinating council should be the development of a complex program of rehabilitation of Erebuni fortress, after which the implementation phase of the program will follow. When summarizing the meeting the mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan noted that land improvement, arrangement of green spaces and construction of lighting and waste water collection systems are in the list of forthcoming issues. It should be noted that, as the first step, by order of the mayor the Municipality built staircases leading from the Museum to the citadel, rehabilitated the lighting network of that section and places benches in 2009.

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