VIDEO: Boycott the Café Leased by Manvel Grigoryan, Calls for Action from the Mayor of Echmiadzin

The Echmiadzin municipality has not only refused to extend the lease agreement for Manvel Grigoryan's café but is also taking steps to terminate it ahead of schedule. This announcement was made today, June 3, during a live broadcast on Facebook by the Mayor of Echmiadzin, Diana Gasparyan, in response to criticism regarding the extension of the café's lease for another 30 years.

She provided background on the issue: “The area across from the municipality was leased to close associates of Manvel Grigoryan to establish and build a café in 2003 for 25 years, thus until 2028, at an annual rent of approximately 23,000 drams.”

According to Gasparyan, it is not possible to terminate the contract prematurely, and the municipality can only adjust the rental fee. If the tenant disagrees, then it can unilaterally terminate the contract. To this end, the municipality has decided to set a new annual rental fee of about 7 million drams, and the café's lessees have already been notified.

Diana Gasparyan expressed hope that the lessees would not agree to pay such an amount, leading to the termination of the agreement. Meanwhile, she called for a boycott of the café's operations: “I want to urge our fellow citizens to boycott the café, no matter the circumstances—even during the hottest summer days, refrain from buying even a bottle of water from that café, so that it does not generate any income,” said the Mayor of Echmiadzin, Diana Gasparyan.