ARMENIAN BILL ON PROPERTY CONFISCATION PASSED AMID PROTESTS
By Astghik Bedevian and Shakeh Avoyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Nov 27 2006
Ignoring vehement protests from the opposition and scores of displaced
Yerevan residents, the Armenian government pushed through parliament
on Monday a highly controversial bill that empowers it to confiscate
private property practically at will.
The bill was passed in the third and final reading over the objections
of the National Assembly’s opposition minority that branded it unjust
and unconstitutional. The development came after weeks of heated
debates on the issue among the country’s leading political parties
and civil society representatives.
The adopted law is meant to regulate continuing demolitions of
old parts of central Yerevan which has been the scene of a massive
redevelopment in recent years. They have sparked angry protests by
hundreds of families who have been evicted from their now demolished
homes and claim to have not been properly compensated by the state.
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.
The bill in question was drafted in response to the court ruling. Its
adoption means that the authorities can continue to tear down old
houses in the capital and other parts of the country by simply invoking
"needs of the public and the state." The law has been condemned by many
displaced families and opposition lawmakers, even though it entitles
the owner of a confiscated property to a financial compensation equal
to its market value.
The opposition succeeded in late September in thwarting the
government’s first attempt to push it through the parliament
dominated by President Robert Kocharian’s supporters. But the bill
was re-introduced by the government and approved in the first reading
last month.
"This law is unconstitutional," Grigor Harutiunian of the opposition
Artarutyun (Justice) alliance, said, appealing to his pro-government
colleagues before the vote. Representatives of the two other opposition
factions in the parliament, National Unity and Orinats Yerkir, also
spoke out against the bill.
However, the opposition calls went unheeded, with 70 members of
the 131-strong assembly voting for its final passage. Many of them
were confronted and jeered earlier in the day by dozens of angry
displaced residents that protested outside the parliament in a further
desperate attempt to clinch heftier sums for their lost homes. The
protesters, who claim to be victims of government corruption, chanted
"Shame! Shame!" as members of the parliament majority made their way
into the parliament building.