STILL EXPECTING HELP FROM PRIME MINISTER

Lragir, Armenia
July 25 2007

On July 25 the Victims of Public Needs NGO and the OSCE Yerevan office
held a discussion at the Congress Hotel on the status of citizens of
Armenia who suffered from public needs. The civil society activists,
as well as public officials, including ones from the administrations
of the president and the prime minister had been invited. The public
officials did not show up. Although, Attorney Arthur Grigoryan, who
specializes in providing legal services to the victims of public needs,
said all these problems are the consequence of the government’s faults
regarding urban planning.

The chair of the Victims of Public Needs NGO Sedrak Baghdasaryan said
the demolition of residential areas in Yerevan launched in 2001 not
only breaks the laws and the Constitution but also the decisions of
the Constitutional Court adopted before and after these breaches.

Meanwhile, the courts have been unable so far to explain what a
public need means. "Let them implement urban planning projects in the
liberated territories, involving privately-owned companies. Are there
no public needs there?" Sedrak Baghdasaryan asked. According to him,
the demolition of residential areas in Yerevan increased the number
of underprivileged and vulnerable people, which means that these
urban planning projects contradict to the poverty reduction strategy,
the Millennium Challenge program and other similar programs. Or the
Armenian government demands that other governments honor and preserve
the Armenian cultural values in other countries. "The country which
fails to solve this problem inside the country does not have the
right to demand it from others," Sedrak Baghdasaryan says.

The new prime minister Serge Sargsyan had met with the victims of
public needs before the May 12 parliamentary election and promised
to solve this problem. There is no response from Serge Sargsyan yet.

Sedrak Baghdasaryan stated that most citizens have no expectations
from the prime minister anymore. Sedrak Baghdasaryan is not one
of them. He still hopes that "a person who occupies such a post
cannot forget about his promises" and does not rule out that the
prime minister may encounter problems in addressing this problem,
and his efforts prove ineffective. "It is evidence to corruption in
the country. And we are ready to support the prime minister."

Attorney Arthur Grigoryan who defends the rights of the people who
suffered from public needs said this issue has become a national
problem because of mass violation of human rights combined with
violence. "The Program Implementation Agencies do not match their
name of non-commercial organizations, they are engaged in intermediary
commercial activities and back investors. The agencies are responsible,
and the investors make use of it."