Will they defile nature for the sake of casinos?
"We have taken a destructive path if we want to be a cultural country," President of Reform NGO Karine Hakobyan told a press conference today.
Let's remind that the government has worked out a project according to which all casinos will operate in three tourist cities Sevan, Jermuk and Tsakhkadzor starting from 2013.
On June 11 the prime minister announced: "The President made a decision that all casinos must be removed from the city center and its environs."
Karine Hakobyan thinks that if the project is realized and casinos are moved to the aforesaid cities, it will lead to the degradation of small cities. "Casinos must be erected in separate desert places, away from settlements. Nature mustn't be spoiled because of them."
Mrs. Hakobyan voices concern that the issue hasn't drawn a wide response.
"Amnesty is a trivial issue compared with the problem of casinos. Doesn't our society realize the seriousness of the issue?" she asked.
Karen Tamazyan, a senior representative of the Ministry of Finance, thinks the decision will keep people away from temptations.
"Jermuk is considered a recreation zone. People are given a chance to go to casinos during their visit to the city," said Mr. Tamazyan who approves the government's decision to take casinos out of the capital.
The business is banned in Azerbaijan and Turkey and wide-spread in Georgia and Armenia. Karen Tamazyan says Iranians can go and play in Jermuk's casinos.
