May 2, 2013Matvey AndreyevCC BY 3.0source
A circular terminal where a car delivered you straight to your own gate, with the aircraft parked in a ring outside. It has taken no passengers since 2011. The building sits on the state register of monuments — and has nonetheless spent a decade oscillating between demolition permits and the absence of any preservation plan.
- Designed
- 1970
- Completed
- 1981
- Address
- 15 km west of Yerevan, Zvartnots airport
- Authors
- Artur Tarkhanyan (architect), Spartak Khachikyan (architect), Levon Cherkezyan (architect), Zhorzh Shekhlyan (architect), Sargis Baghdasaryan (engineer)
The state register dates the building to 1981. Press accounts usually say the first phase opened in November 1980 and the complex entered full operation in February 1982 — the spread reflects a staged opening, not a dispute about facts.
Protection
- Register entry
- №12
- Listed since
- August 14, 2025
- By act
- RA Government Decision N 1151-N of 14 August 2025
Entry 12 in the state register of Yerevan's immovable historical and cultural monuments: republic-level significance, Armenian SSR State Prize 1985. Decision N 1151-N is what added it — the version of the list in force before 14 August 2025 has no such entry. The ministry confirmed the listing again in July 2026.
ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍKey figures
Timeline
- Origin
Competition for a new air terminal
The winning entry is a fundamentally circular building: you drive to your own gate instead of walking through a shared hall.
Artur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, Levon Cherkezyan
ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍ - Milestone
First phase opens
The complex reaches full operation in February 1982. The state register dates the building to 1981.
The Armenian ReportՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍ - Media
Filmed in 'The Travels of Mr. Kleks'
The terminal plays the command platform of the Inventors' Island in the Polish film released in 1986.
Filmweb - MilestoneWin
Armenian SSR State Prize
ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍ - Development
Arrivals move to the new terminal
The first step of the move-out: the circle starts emptying in pieces.
Armenia International Airports
The Armenian Report - MilestoneLoss
The last passenger
With the new terminal's second phase in service, the round building stops handling flights and has stood empty since.
The Armenian Report - Civic action
Vienna architecture congress asks that the building be preserved
The 19th congress adopts a resolution addressed to Armenia.
A1+ - DecisionContested
The concessionaire asks for a demolition permit
An application to Yerevan municipality: demolish the old building to expand the new terminal.
Armenia International Airports, Yerevan Municipality
A1+Ազատություն / RFE-RL - Civic actionWin
The Public Council rejects the demolition proposal
A1+ - Civic action
Pan-Armenian Forum of Architects appeals to the authorities
The third forum asks that the building be kept.
A1+ - DecisionLossContested
The municipality permits partial demolition
The permit goes to the airport concessionaire. Architect Anahit Tarkhanyan publicly calls the decision a product of corrupt interests.
Taron Margaryan, Armenia International Airports
A1+ - DevelopmentLoss
The elevated approach road is dismantled
The ramp is declared structurally unsafe and taken down. The part of the idea that made the building circular in the first place disappears: driving straight to your gate.
The Armenian Report - DecisionContested
Government plan: keep the tower, demolish the terminal
The document budgets USD 1 million to strengthen the tower and USD 750,000 to demolish the terminal.
PanARMENIAN.Net - MilestoneWin
The building enters the state register of monuments
Government Decision N 1151-N, entry 12, republic-level significance. For the first time in a decade of argument, the building has legal protection. The same act also lists the Rossiya cinema, the other major work by the same architects.
ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍThe Armenian ReportՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍ - DecisionUnclear
Draft decision to strike it from the monuments register
In spring 2026 the territorial administration ministry posts a draft on the e-draft platform. The text is short: declare void point 12 of the 'Malatia-Sebastia' table in Yerevan's register of monuments — precisely the entry the terminal is listed under. The justification speaks of 'modernization and functional conversion'. The platform marks the draft adopted, yet it never reached a cabinet agenda and never became a decision.
Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure
e-draft.amԱզատություն / RFE-RL - Decision
Fifth amendment to the concession agreement approved
The airport expansion program is valued at roughly USD 425 million through 2033; the operator speaks of USD 500 million over a decade.
Armenia International Airports
The Armenian Report - Decision
The scientific-methodological council approves the master plan
Approval is conditional on further architectural solutions being agreed with professional bodies. The council did not take up the monument's status.
Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport
Ազատություն / RFE-RL - Civic action
Architects raise the alarm
The Artur Tarkhanyan Center calls on the government to revise the master plan and keep the building. Anahit Tarkhanyan: preserving it as a unique example was never considered — at most, keeping a part of it.
Artur Tarkhanyan Center, Anahit Tarkhanyan
Ազատություն / RFE-RLSputnik Армения
What has been lost
- archi.ru / ТАТЛИНThe Armenian Report
The upper ring road. A car pulled up at the section printed on your ticket, leaving 13.5 metres from the car door to the check-in desk. The circle was devised for exactly this.
- The Armenian Report
The passenger function: the building has handled no flights since 2011
Contested points
Is removal of the protected status being discussed?
'There has been no discussion whatsoever about removing it from the list.' The building is on the state register of monuments.
Ազատություն / RFE-RLThe alarm comes not from a single draft but from the master plan: in none of its variants is keeping the whole building provided for.
Ազատություն / RFE-RLWhat is checkable: a draft to strike the listing was indeed published on e-draft in spring 2026 but never became a government decision. The territorial administration ministry said that question is no longer under discussion, but that a variant involving alteration of the old building is — and promised to explain what that means when the master plan goes to public consultation.
Gallery
2007, still in service. The tower rising over the roof is the one part of the complex every demolition plan has promised to keep.
August 17, 2007AvityaPublic domainsource
May 2011, shot from the ramp itself: this deck is how cars climbed to the round building's departures level. On the left is the new terminal, its surroundings still a building site; four months later it took the flights over. The ramp came down in 2016 as structurally unsafe — in the 2021 photograph below, the same ground is bare.
May 4, 2011vahemartCC BY-SA 3.0source
The model in the administration building lobby: the whole idea at once — the terminal ring, the tower, and the aircraft on the outer radius.
April 17, 2014BekoCC BY-SA 3.0source
2021, exactly ten years standing empty. This condition is cited both as the argument for demolition and as proof that nobody maintained it.
September 25, 2021Narek75CC BY-SA 4.0source
Related topics
Sources
- DecreeState register of Yerevan's immovable historical and cultural monuments (entry 12)ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍ
- MediaKaren Balyan, 'The space of Zvartnots' — a chapter from the book 'Zvartnots Airport' (TATLIN, Yekaterinburg, 2016)archi.ru / ТАТЛИНarchive · May 26, 2022
- DecreeRA Government Decision N 1151-N of 14 August 2025 'On making additions and changes to a number of Government decisions'ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍarchive · July 27, 2026
- Official documentDraft decision 'On making a change to Government Decision N 1616-N of 7 October 2004'e-draft.am
- MediaWhat fate awaits the old Zvartnots airport buildingԱզատություն / RFE-RL
- MediaArmenia's famous round Zvartnots airport terminal could be demolished under government planThe Armenian Report
- MediaThe cabinet's approach is unacceptable: experts on the possible demolition of the old Zvartnots buildingSputnik Армения
- MediaYerevan Municipality allows demolition of old building of Zvartnots AirportA1+
- MediaArmenia Zvartnots airport traffic control tower to remainPanARMENIAN.Netarchive · August 4, 2023
- MediaArmenia considers reconstructing the old Zvartnots terminalNews-Armeniaarchive · May 12, 2022
- Media'The Travels of Mr. Kleks' — filming locationsFilmwebarchive · April 29, 2018