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Vanadzor Dendropark, (arboretum) a huge green area with unique trees has become private property after the government granted a 57 year management contract to a Vanadzor-based businessman’s company.

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Sarukh Star Ltd, owned by Vanadzor businessman Armen Sarukhanyan beat out two other competitors in the tender that was announced last month. The winning company paid 285,000 drams (about $900) for the right to manage the 1.9 hectare property.
  According to the agreement, Sarukh is obliged to improve and develop the area without causing any harm to the ecological balance.
  The Vanadzor arboretum was created in 1929 owing to the efforts of Soviet forest specialists. Botanists say it was the first research experimental station in Soviet Armenia that served grounds for the development of Armenian forest studies and forests in Armenia.
  About 185 sorts of tress and shrubs are grown in the park.
  The ceding of the territory of the Vanadzor arboretum to a private company gave way to various opinions and talks among the residents of Vanadzor – many who don’t like Sarukhanyan after he bought out the town cinema several years ago and turned it into a bakery.
  Sarukhanyan has promised that his company will make the park flourish. Generally, the specialists of dendropark say that it is in poor condition, since some trees are cut, the fence is broken and there were remains of bonfire.
  Director of the company (and uncle to Sarukhanyan) Seyran Sarukhanyan says they have prepared a plan of park improvement works that will demand 150 million drams ($500,000) from the company’s budget. The management of the company makes sure that the only profit they can have is from the cottages.
  Vahan Mkhitaryan, dendrologist of the park says there are plant species included in the Red Book and that the wildlife of the park has been enriched with two pairs of Siberian and Caucasian squirrels during the last two years.
  Gevorg Sargsyan, director of the ‘Argelotsaparkayin hamalir’ (Preserve and Park Complex) State Non-commercial Organization believes the reason of giving the park to private ownership are the scarce means of the state to maintain and improve it.
  The RA state budget annually allots about 65 million drams ($209,667) to all complexes in Armenia. The sum is distributed for the maintenance of forests and arboretums.
  The Vanadzor arboretum annually receives more than 1.5 million drams (more than $5,000) that suffices for the salary of just 4 workers.
  Sargsyan says the new tenant will undertake the construction, improvement and development expenses of the park.
  According to the RA Law on Flora the tenants of flora including arboretums are obliged to provide preservation of plants [on the territories] ceded to them.
  Sargsyan asserts the indicated 57 years of concession do not mean the arboretum does not belong to the state: “the task of its maintenance, preservation, care and development is simply ceded to a private company,” adding that the activities of the tenant will be supervised by the representatives of the park.
  The current management of the park doesn’t accept the decision.
  They insist they were not even informed of the new management agreement.
  Director of the Vanadzor arboretum Samvel Mkhitaryan has concerns the territory may be lost as an environmental treasure.
  “I am against it, because I know his appetite. It will turn into a celebrations hall and that’s it,” says Mkhitaryan, who has been in charge of the park for 10 years.
  “How could a research center that facilitated the forest studies in Armenia, be ceded? There are tree and shrub sorts that will definitely be damaged in case of any construction work,” says Mkhitaryan.
  But Mkhitaryan’s supervisor complains of his Vanadzor workers’ careless maintenance of the park.
  “Our spring, summer and autumn check up visits show the situation there is dire. The fence is ruined, 4 trees are cut,” says Sargsyan adding the careless treatment of the workers of the park has forced him to cede its management to a private company.
  “They could take care of the trees, couldn’t they? It is not connected to having money,” says Sargsyan, who has assigned the workers of the arboretum as supervisors over the tenant despite his dissatisfaction with their performance.
  The director of the Sarukh Star Ltd. has already installed new gates and has locked the central entrance of the park.
  Sarukhanyan says his company plans to restore the two water basins and to build two greenhouses, and to increase the number of plant species in the park.
  “We don’t have the right to cut a shrub; we can’t build a building,” says the director of Sarukh Star company.
  The arboretum will be able to bring income to Sarukhanyan’s business only after the construction of a cottage to be built in several years that will serve as a guest house for visiting tourists.
  The director says they have no intention to make profit by renting the arboretum.
  Their aim is to keep alive the memory of their forest specialist father who passed away untimely. The Sarukhanyans say they are also ready to buy a one room apartment for the former warden of the park, who currently lives with his family in an apartment built for workers in the park.
  The Sarukhanyans demand that the family leaves the park, offering them another apartment in exchange. But the residents of the park want more.
  www.armenianow.com
  By Naira Bulghadaryan
ArmeniaNow Vanadzor reporter