PRESS RELEASE
The National Citizens’ Initiative
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 375033, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 27.16.00, 27.00.03
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46
E-mail: info@nci.am
Website:
October 13, 2005
National Citizens’ Initiative Holds Public Hearings on
Property Rights and Their Violation
Yerevan–The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today continued its series
of public hearings with a town-hall meeting on “Violations in Property
Alienation.” By means of the event, NCI brought a new stimulus to the civic
movement against the human rights infringements taking place during
implementation of the new construction plan for Yerevan. On August 24, at
the time of the first hearings devoted to this issue, NCI had underscored
the need to prepare a special report.
NCI program coordinator Edgar Hakobian welcomed the audience with opening
remarks. This was followed by a video clip on the recent and ongoing
violations against the residents of the “alienation belt” in the capital’s
Kentron community. “The legal abuse against the citizens of Armenia is
continuing and no end seems in sight. For many of our fellow dwellers life
has turned into a nightmare; numerous families are on the streets for quite
some time now. In addition, if the state is refusing to restore the
infringed rights of its own citizens, then civil society has no right to
remain silent. And in various ways our Initiative is trying to assume its
share in the prevention of those contraventions,” Hakobian said, who also
gave eyewitness testimony on several such breaches.
Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) director of
research Stiopa Safarian made public NCI’s special report entitled “The
Victims of State Necessities,” in which a group of analysts has thoroughly
examined the legitimacy and constitutionality of this process. “The
addressees of the review are not the Armenian public alone but also those
officials who have not yet lost the capacity to listen and make a real
assessment. Just as Armenian citizens have exhausted all possible avenues
for defending their rights, it seems the body politic likewise has lost the
capability to stop those unlawful acts. With this report, we seek to give
new impetus to the process by means of inviting to this question the
attention of not only local but also international human rights
organizations,” Safarian concluded.
Illegalities and arbitrariness are still so widespread in Armenia that this
autumn the country’s ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdian had come up with a
special report in this regard. “The human rights defender had been
criticized for her 2004 annual report, where the facts pertaining to the sad
state of human rights were either under-expressed or entirely missing. That
gap has been filled by the special report,” Alaverdian said. She also
expressed a conviction that even after the revelation of relevant evidences,
unlawful acts continue unabated.
In his turn, Armenian Bar Association member Arthur Grigorian brought forth
numerous examples of the breach of citizens’ rights to judicial protection.
“Indirect persecution also has started against human rights advocates and
legal defenders. A vivid illustration of this is the arrest, based on
fabricated accusations, and night trial of Vahe Grigorian, director of the
legal firm ‘Right,'” Arthur Grigorian noted. The participants in the hearing
recalled that Vahe Grigorian is the lawyer for a number of families being
evicted from Biuzand Street who by way of his professional practice is
generating serious impediments for the “digestion” of these illegalities.
The assembled NCI activists and other public representatives made an appeal
to the governing authorities to put an end to such unlawful and undemocratic
deeds.
Despite the invitations that were sent to a range of state bodies, there
were very few government officials who took part in the session. Chairman
Karen Davtian of the Bureau for the Implementation of Yerevan’s Construction
Investment Plans attempted to substantiate the legitimacy of property
alienation. According to him, the number of disgruntled citizens is small
because approximately 1200 residents of that area already have signed
pertinent contracts and received compensations. In the words of Davtian, the
complaints by many are baseless since those people do not possess any
documents that confirm their right to proprietorship.
However, the scores of citizens who participated in the public roundtable
with their private testimonies maintained the contrary and presented their
own counter evidence as victims of the state’s “eminently false domain and
needs.” Sedrak Barseghian in particular pointed out that the company, which
received the permission to carry out construction in that zone has an
enormous debt to the state. Biuzand Street residents Vachagan Hakobian,
Levon Ghasabian, Gohar Gharibian, and Iskuhi Bilian, on the other hand,
testified that the state authorities were evicting the inhabitants from
their homes without compensating them.
The remainder of the session was devoted to exchanges of views and policy
recommendations among the public figures and policy specialists in
attendance. Noteworthy were interventions by MP Vardan Mkrtchian; Samvel
Davtian from the Bureau for the Implementation of Yerevan’s Construction
Investment Plans; Arsen Lalayants of the Yerevan City Hall; Artak Bektashian
from the Ministry of Nature Protection; NCI activists Vardan Siradeghian and
Liana Grigorian; chairman Avetik Ishkhanian of the Armenian Helsinki
Committee; Artak Kirakosian from the Civil Society Institute; chairman Hakob
Sanasarian of the Greens’ Union; the Armenian ombudswoman’s chief advisor
Zhora Khachatrian and specialist Silva Markosian; OSCE Yerevan Office
representative Lilit Umroyan; a group of former residents of Biuzand,
Lalayants, Aram, and Pushkin streets; and many others.
The National Citizens’ Initiative is a public non-profit association founded
in December 2001 by Raffi K. Hovannisian, his colleagues, and fellow
citizens with the purpose of realizing the rule of law and overall
improvements in the state of the state, society, and public institutions.
The National Citizens’ Initiative is guided by a Coordinating Council, which
includes individual citizens and representatives of various public,
scientific, and educational establishments. Five commissions on Law and
State Administration, Socioeconomic Issues, Foreign Policy, Spiritual and
Cultural Challenges, and the Youth constitute the vehicles for the
Initiative’s work and outreach.
For further information, please call (37410) 27-16-00 or 27-00-03; fax
(37410) 52-48-46; e-mail info@nci.am; or visit