Ferdosi Street, until recently was an active market place
BY J. DAGDIGIAN
On July 19 with only hours of warning, city workers arrived at Ferdosi Street, a narrow passageway near Republic Square, and tore down the booths of Ferdosi Market. Shops which were in small, private garages were allowed to remain, at least for now. Workers also dug up a part of the street to discourage passage.
This was the site of an old Persian community from the time of the Persian occupation of Yerevan. Two Persian aristocrat brothers had had a large house here, with a harem. I am told when Persian Shah Abbas visited Yerevan he stayed here. The opulent house remains, but in partial ruins, displaying a small remnant of its previous splendor.
During the Karabakh war and the initial days of Armenian independence, when trade with all of Armenia’s neighbors except Iran was disrupted, Iranians supplied Armenia with inexpensive merchandise, setting up a market here. Armenians joined in as well. A while back Iranian merchants constituted perhaps 40% of the business here. The market is now, or at least was until its destruction, entirely Armenian. The market was called “Ferdosi Marketâ€
