Café being demolished in Yerevan's Saryan Park

Excavators from Yerevan City Hall have moved into Saryan Park to demolish an open-air café that has operated on the site for nearly three decades.

The café, owned by Kolorit LLC, has been in operation since 1996. Its owner told Panorama.am on Friday that the demolition would cause severe financial damage and vowed to take the case “as far as the European Court of Human Rights”.

“We will go all the way to the European Court to make the municipality compensate for the damage,” the owner said. “The café occupies 400 square meters. We even improved the adjacent park area at our own expense and provided the benches.”

According to the owner, the Yerevan authorities filed a lawsuit against the company in 2021. He estimates his losses at several hundred thousand dollars.