The Mayor of Yerevan has announced that music will play in the City Hall’s clock tower and throughout the city at 07:00 every morning to wake people up, because ‘the working day should start early’.

In a post on Facebook on Saturday, Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan said he was ‘sure that the city should wake up early’.

While the City Hall’s clock tower bells toll every hour, Sargsyan has now introduced the anthem of Yerevan, Erebuni-Yerevan playing every morning. He said that the music would also be played across all of the capital’s 12 districts, with sound systems already being set up. Over 1 million people, roughly one-third of Armenia’s population, live in Yerevan. 

While the news was mostly met with memes and humour among Armenians, some people approved of the idea, suggesting that the whole country should wake up early in the morning but, that the transition should be a coordinated process. 

At a City Hall meeting on Monday, Sargsyan said he did not expect such stong reactions to his announcement, and praised the memes circulating online.

‘I had no idea it would be such a big event. Of course, it is gratifying that the residents of Yerevan and also from the Armenian provinces treat Yerevan with great responsibility’, he said.

Sargsyan shrugged off comments about how the music could disrupt residents’ mornings, saying that the bells on the clock tower were already ringing at the start of each day and that ‘no one complained about it so far’.

‘I’m sure the people will wake up in the same way even after my announcement; there’s nothing much changed in their lives since then’, he said.