Residents of Yerevan continue to be evicted from their apartments “according to state need” in the center of the city, without, they insist, adequate compensation.

On December 10, (consequently, International Human Rights Day), Naira Abrahamyan, and her four under-age children residing at Buzand St. 83, Yerevan, were evicted from their home. It is the house of her parents and it was pulled down, because the municipality of Yerevan, considering its territory to be “prevailing public interest,” sold it to Hayk Beglaryan, son of well-known businessman Barsegh Beglaryan’s (owner of ‘Flash’ CJSC, who has a dominant position in petrol and diesel fuel import).

Residents of Yerevan continue to be evicted from their apartments “according to state need” in the center of the city, without, they insist, adequate compensation.

On December 10, (consequently, International Human Rights Day), Naira Abrahamyan, and her four under-age children residing at Buzand St. 83, Yerevan, were evicted from their home. It is the house of her parents and it was pulled down, because the municipality of Yerevan, considering its territory to be “prevailing public interest,” sold it to Hayk Beglaryan, son of well-known businessman Barsegh Beglaryan’s (owner of ‘Flash’ CJSC, who has a dominant position in petrol and diesel fuel import).

“How did it happen that an oligarch’s interest became a prevailing public interest? Why is his interest prevailing over mine? Do they want to build a house where ghosts will reside like on Northern Avenue’s empty street?” Abrahamyan asks.

The small Buzand Street, a subject of discord since 2002, runs from Republic Square to Mashtots Avenue. Its houses have been alienated since 2002, and the Abrahamyans were one of the last of long-time residents who have the same fate of being evicted.

“That day (Human Rights Day) when the ombudsman (who had been called for protection) left, they started evicting us. They brought a car full of representatives of the Special Service of RA Police (also known as the ‘red berets’) who evicted us by force, and they immediately pulled the house down so that we could not enter there again,” 37-year-old Abrahamyan told ArmeniaNow. “My 2-year-old child was sleeping on the sofa, they took my child out. Where can I go now, when it is winter outside, what shall I do?”

The Abrahamyan family house, which according to documents was built overtime from 1915 till the 1970s, was divided into several parts, and ten members of three families were residing there. The three families received a total of 37 million drams ($94,000).

Real estate agents say it is nearly impossible to figure equivalent sums for compensation – taking into consideration the condition (usually poor) of such buildings, the location, and the increase changes in real estate prices year to year. (In some cases, too, agents fear evaluating a price that may later conflict in court with the interests of powerful oligarchs who want the property.) However: Nearly all agree that three families with a total of 10 members cannot find proper housing for the amount these were given.

The main complaint is that the Abrahamyans were compensated only for the part of the house in which they lived; rather than the entire house, which they owned.

“They have counted only 65 square meters, but the space of our whole house is 135 square meters. They should have compensated for 135 square meters. In that case we would be able to get enough money to buy an apartment at least in one of Yerevan’s suburbs. Whereas now we will simply stay homeless,” Abrahamyan says. (Since the eviction, family members have been scattered to various relatives or friends’ homes.)

The sector of the house which has not been privatized and, which has not been compensated, is being lived in by Nune Hambardzumyan and her two under-age children.

The space where they live is considered to be a self-willed building, which has not been privatized by the State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre, because it was estimated as a “fourth-level” unsafe building (on a scale of 1-4, with 4 being most unsafe).

“They were not privatizing the building deliberately so that they could throw us out as if we are a nuisance,” Hambardzumyan says.

Meanwhile, the RA Law on Property Alienation demands compensating the non-privatized buildings, too, if they were built before May 15, 2001.

Even though Hambardzumyan’s house was built nearly 30 years ago and she has two certificates and an approved plan (given to her by the Yerevan Municipality in 1998), where the sector of her house is also recorded, the municipality insists that her house was built in 2005. None of the documents Hambardzumyan provided ArmeniaNow corresponds to the municipality’s later date.

“The court has not taken into consideration these documents; the plan exists, so they have to compensate, but they do not want to. They buy one square meter of our house for $700. They are going to build a 12-floor building in the place of our house, where one square meter will be sold for $1,200. They are not willing to spend the price of even one floor of the building in order to compensate us,” Hambardzumyan says.

The houses of about 5,000 families were alienated since 2001 when the construction process of Northern Avenue was started. Sedrak Baghdasaryan, head of ‘Victims of State Needs’ NGO (non-governmental organization), says that according to their research, about 50 percent of the families were not satisfied, as they had not gotten an adequate compensation, and the cases of 15 residents are currently at the European Court.