HOUSE DEMOLITIONS CONTINUE IN YEREVAN
By Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 1 2007

Security forces used force to evict on Thursday yet another family
in downtown Yerevan whose old house has been confiscated by the state
to be torn down by private real estate developers.

The family of nine persons were forced out of their eight-room property
after refusing to accept a $23,000 compensation offered by municipal
authorities. Citing "public needs," the authorities have decided to
give it to the owner of an adjacent building housing a night club
and a department store.

The evicted residents say the proposed compensation is worth a
fraction of the market value of their home and insufficient even
for buying a tiny apartment on the city outskirts. The authorities
counter that the sum is modest partly because some parts of the house
were constructed illegally.

The main house owner, Samvel Gharibian, has unsuccessfully challenged
his family’s displacement in two courts. He filed an appeal to
Armenia’s Court of Cassation and is currently awaiting a judgment.

Justice Ministry bailiffs, backed up by special police, cited the
lower court rulings as they broke into Gharibian’s house. His wife and
one of the daughters put up fierce resistance to the law-enforcement
officers, screaming and condemning them as "fascists." The pregnant
young woman was injured in the scuffle and required medical assistance.

In the meantime, dozens of other people, who have already been evicted
from other old neighborhoods of Yerevan, gathered outside in a show of
solidarity with the Gharibian family. "You don’t defend the interests
of the people," one man shouted at the bailiffs.

"I’m not the one who is forcing them out," countered one of the
officials.

Hundreds of families have been affected by the ongoing controversial
redevelopment which is rapidly changing the city center. Many of them
have been similarly unhappy with the modest amount of compensations,
alleging high-level government corruption. Some have resisted eviction
by filing lawsuits and even building barricades.

The Armenian constitution stipulates that private property can
be taken away by the state "only in exceptional cases involving
overriding public interests, in a manner defined by law, and with
a prior commensurate compensation." The process has until now
been regulated only by government directives, however. Armenia’s
Constitutional Court effectively declared it illegal in April, but
stopped short of ordering the authorities to return the increasingly
expensive land to their former owners. It only ordered the government
to pass a bill regulating all aspects of urban development.

The government-controlled parliament approved such a bill last November
amid strong protests from the opposition minority which considers it
too discretionary. It essentially allows the authorities to continue
to demolish old houses in the capital and other parts of the country
by simply invoking "needs of the public and the state."

The government again used that prerogative at a weekly meeting on
Thursday, approving redevelopment projects in some parts of the
Armenian capital. A government press release did not specify those
areas.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress