Downtown Yerevan will be closed to traffic on October 14
11.10.2012,
17:17
The downtown Yerevan will be closed to traffic on October 14 when residents of the Armenian capital and thousands of guests will be celebrating City Day.
YEREVAN, October 11. /ARKA/. The downtown Yerevan will be closed to traffic on October 14 when residents of the Armenian capital and thousands of guests will be celebrating City Day.
Henrik Navasardian, head of a municipality department in charge of public transport, said these streets will be closed for traffic beginning from 8.30 am. He added that the overland public transport will work until late in the evening and the metro until 1am the next morning. He said additional buses and minibuses will be brought to downtown to take people to the nearest subway stations.
The deputy commander of the First Battalion of Traffic Police, Colonel Ashot Kirakosyan, urged citizens to abstain on that day from driving their personal vehicles. Kirakosyan said that the Police on that day will respond promptly to all signals of citizens in case of emergency situations. He said ambulance cars will be stationed in all sites hosting public events.
The City Day’s celebrations will proceed under the motto "The capital of my heart." The municipality will have spent 90 million drams ($220,800) on organization of the festive events.
The parks, squares and streets in the center of Yerevan and in the administrative districts will host concerts of folk, classical, jazz and rock music, exhibitions, performances of street musicians and mimes, streetball competitions, performances of model airplanes and bike rides. The City Day will be wrapped up by a large concert at Republic Square and fireworks.
Erebuni-Yerevan, an annual celebration of the city’s foundation was first marked in 1968, when the Armenian capital turned 2,750. Until 1988 it was celebrated every year, but after the country's independence, this tradition was resumed only in 1998.
Yerevan (Erebuni) was founded in 782 BC, 29 years before the founding of Rome, by the king of Urartu Argishti in the south-east of the Armenian Highland. A stone plate with cuneiform, which bears the date of the founding of the city is in Erebuni museum. -0-
