Photos: No Written Document Received from City Hall, Tree Felling Protocol Surprises Experts

On March 23, the Yerevan Municipality's "Greening and Environmental Protection" SNCO announced the commencement of work to replace "aged, functionally obsolete trees with viable, decorative trees". The work began at the Cascade, and the felling of thick-trunk trees sparked a wave of protests among citizens. The term "tree replacement" seemed more like "slaughter". It was announced that instead of the felled trees, Sakura trees would be planted at the Cascade.

Organizations listed in the protocol from the scientific conference held on February 23, 2023, at the Yerevan City Hall responded to and denied the claims made by the Yerevan Municipality's "Greening and Environmental Protection" SNCO. Arsen Gasparyan from the Institute of Botany named after A. Takhtajyan of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia reacted to the published list. He stated, "I regret that I have to respond here, but there is no other option, as our institute and specialists' names are mentioned. This was the response from the NAS: 'We have not received any written document from the municipality, and no one has asked our employees for their opinion. Therefore, we have not made any written conclusion or conducted any research. No employee from the Botany Department has expressed an opinion on whether trees can be cut or not, meaning there has been no official letter or invitation for discussion from the municipality.'"

He also added that the Institute of Botany named after A. Takhtajyan has not received a tree replacement program, it has not been discussed at the institute, and there is no conclusion from a specialized organization. Our specialists participated in the conference, but the accepted document contains no mention of a professional conclusion regarding tree felling at the Cascade or planting Sakura trees.

Additionally, Facebook user Siruhi Ghazaryan made a post on her page stating, "On February 8, 2018, the Armenian government's decision No. 108-N approved the ‘Requirements for the Sizes and Species Composition of Green Areas in Settlements’. According to Paragraph 7 of the annex of the above decision, a list of tree and shrub species growing in the Republic of Armenia was established, where the collective name of the tree species 'Sakura', classified under the subfamily Prunoideae, is absent."