RESIDENTS OF YEREVAN'S KENTRON COMMUNITY AREAS SUBJECT TO
URBAN DEVELOPMENT DEMAND MAYOR'S RESIGNATION
27-09-2007 22:20:00 | Armenia | Social
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Residents of Yerevan's
Yeznik Koghbatsi Street and the Dalma gardens staged a
demonstration in front of the RA government's building on
September 27 in connection with procrastination of the
privatization of the residential areas occupied by them. They
demand that their violated rights be restored and their right of
ownership over the apartments and land plots used by them be
recognized.
Vachagan Hakobian, chairman of Protection of Own Rights
NGO, told NT correspondent that on April 13 of this year the
Armenian prime minister Serge Sargsian received the
denonstrators and promised to solve this problem after the
parliamentary elections. The prime minister instructed the
Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharian to speed up the real estate
privatization in these areas but this instruction has not been
fulfilled so far.
In the words of V. Hakobian, under a number of governmental
decisions, which were later recognized as anticonstitutional,
the Yerevan municipality (using the levers of force structures,
administrative and court systems) have evicted Armenian citizens
from their apartments.
"We demand the mayor's resignation: he must be called to
account for selling areas to businessmen under the pretext of
"state needs", V. hakobian stated.
Sedrak Baghdasarian, chairman of Victims of State Needs
NGO, noted that in case of failing to get a positive response
from the prime minister, the residents will send an open letter
to the country's president, and to a number of international
structures, including the European Court.