The minister is one of the law-breakers

Starting in the 1990’s, numerous buildings continue to be constructed on the shores of Lake Sevan – private houses, hotels, cafes. Frequently, they are built right on the shore at a distance less than 1,905 meter mark above sea-level, placing them in a zone where they will be submerged if the water level of the lake rises.

Last year, the RoA President’s Control Service reviewed the issue of Lake Sevan. According to information they supplied us some 150 structures were built on the 1,900-1903 meter marks. Inga Zarafyan, President of the “Ecolur” informational/ecological NGO, has been active in problems confronting Lake Sevan for many years. Ms. Zarafyan states, “The issue of illegal structures at Lake Sevan is complicated in that practically all wealthy individuals in the country have a hand in the problem. There are only a handful of the rich and government officials who don’t have a private house on the shores of Lake Sevan.” In its October 27, 2008 issue, “Hetq” published information regarding a private house built a few meters from the Lake Sevan shore, on the road from the village of Shorzha leading to the Artanish preserve.

In the photo, only one of the buildings is showing. There are other structures behind it. Today, the site is fenced off and security guards have been ordered not to give out the name of the owner. The iron fence stretches from the cliff wall down to the water’s edge. It’s hard to guess just how much land lies behind the other side of the fence since, according to local residents; the road leading to the site from the other direction has been submerged due to the lake’s rising waters.

As a result of a tender bid in May, 2008, the right to build on the land (9.6 hectares) was given to “Forik Ltd.” until the year 2033. The lease was signed by the Sevan National Park (SNOC) and Armenak Tigranyan, director of the company.

This information was supplied to us by the Press Division of the Ministry of Nature Protection. Mr. Bagrat Kroyan, Director of the Architecture Division at the Gegharkunik Regional Administration’s Department of Urban Construction, states that the structures in question were built during the last year. “The structures built by the company are solid, they rest on cement foundations.

One is constructed on the 1,901 meter mark and the second at 1,902 meters. The space located between the lake’s water mark up till the 1,905 meter mark is the first sub-zone of Lake Sevan’s central ecological zone where the government has banned the construction of any capital structures.

This restriction is defined by Decision N 1563-N, adopted by the RoA government on December 18, 2008, entitled, “Implementation of construction, building rights and leasing of Sevan National Park land parcels and adjoining areas.” Violation of the meter marks isn’t the only problem inherent in these structures.

Point 5, Section 2, of the same decision specifies that any building permit for construction purposes in the first sub-zone of Lake Sevan cannot be for more than three years, whereas the signed lease is good till the year 2033. Mr. Bagrat Kroyan states that the Gegharkunik Marzpet (Regional Governor) has ordered a statement to be drawn up regarding the violations and has instituted an administrative proceeding on October 8, 2008. A 200,000 dram fine has been levied (Article 154, Section 1, of the RoA Statutes Regarding Administrative Offences) and the Marzpet has called on the police to halt further construction and has petitioned the Sevan National Park administration to nullify its lease with “Forik”.

Mr. Kroyan states, “That as of December 24, 2008 none of the demands of the Regional Governor of Gegharkunik have been implemented,” According to information in the possession of “Hetq”, Aram Harutyunyan, the former Minister of Urban Construction who was appointed Minister of Nature Protection in 2007, is linked to the land and private houses in question. The Public Relations Division of the Ministry of Nature Protection responded that Minister Harutyunyan has no connection with that house. All the while, any given resident of Shorzha you meet will point out the “minister’s home”.

Anyone can visit that site by hailing a taxi and asking the driver to take them to Minister Aram Harutyunyan’s resort area. Without asking for directions, the taxi driver will, in a matter of minutes, will pull up before the gates of the building. According to statistics of the RoA Ministry of Justice’s Agency of State Register of Legal Persons, “Forik Ltd” is registered in Yeghvard, the birthplace of the minister.

The sons of the minister’s two aunts, (on his mother’s side) are the company’s founder and director. We attempted to get the minister to provide explanations and clarifications regarding these reports.

However, our written inquiry and numerous telephone calls left us empty-handed. We received no response, either written or oral, to our six questions related to the illegal construction commenced by the minister, the allocation of the land, and other issues about the lake and Sevan National Park.

This, despite the fact, that all the deadlines stipulated in the “Freedom of Information” law regarding government response to public queries had expired. There is also another important factor at play linked to the site that the Ministry of Nature Protection’s Public Information Division also refutes – that the parcel of land leased to “Forik” previously was located in the protected zone. Mr. V. Martirosyan, Director of the Natural Resources Management and Poverty Reduction Implementation Unit at the Ministry of Nature Protection, informed us in writing that until the adoption of the 2007-2011 Sevan National Park’s Implementation Plan the land area of the Artanish Preserve was 2,220 hectares.

Today, the preserve’s area totals 2,142 hectares after 78 hectares of arable land was detached. Of the 78 hectares, 9.6 were leased to “Forik”. By the way, “Forik” already has neighbors; the shore off to one side is also fenced off. That the site leased to “Forik” is part of the lands detached from the Artanish Preserve was also confirmed by Gagik Sukhoudyan who served as Sevan National Park Director from 1980-1991 and who knows the area well and the borders of the protection zones of Sevan Park. Mr. Sukhoudyan says, “Today, those in positions of power prefer sites that generate income. They have no need for empty lands.”

This one case wouldn’t stand out from the other 150 structures below the mark if there weren’t suspicions that the environmental and construction violations were somehow connected to an individual who is the present environmental minister and former urban construction minister.

By the way, the RoA Ministry for Nature Protection has presented a proposal to the government entitled, “To consider all self-erected structures from the water line of Lake Sevan till the 1,905 meter mark as government property and to dismantle same at the expense of the builders.”

Similar environmental and construction violations were uncovered and publicized by the RoA National Assembly Control Chamber at the end of last year when it pointed to the almost 400 summer cottages built on land leased to “Lavanda City Construction” owned by Arayik Hayrapetyan. According to the Control Chamber’s report, the Sevan Municipality leased a 47 hectare plot to “Lavanda City” for a period of 50 years at a yearly cost of 14 drams per 1 square meter (1.2 drams per month). Let us merely point to one environmental violation.

Business mogul Hayrapetyan, to save the buildings from the rising waters of the lake, has dumped huge quantities of soil to the shoreline, thus modifying the lake’s natural relief. Architects during the 1960’s and 1970’s constructed summer resorts and restaurants at Lake Sevan (“Akhtamar”, “”Spitak Tun”) not right on the shoreline but far removed from it, adjacent to the old Sevan roadway. At the time they believed that Lake Sevan’s water line would rise to a level where the newly exposed shoreline areas would once again be submerged. This belief was connected to the survival of the lake since a rise in the water level was necessary to prevent Sevan from blooming up.

Background Data

Lake Sevan is of unique economic and environmental significance for Armenia and the region since, according to all its attributes, it is a natural reservoir of high quality potable fresh water. As a result of the carless exploitation of the lake’s water reserves (energy production, irrigation, starting in the 1930’s, the ecological balance of Sevan was impaired. During the period 1933 – 2000 the water level of Lake Sevan diminished by 19.6 meters due to industrial exploitation while the lake’s volume dropped from 58.5 billion cubic meters to 32.5 billion. (These statistics are taken from the preface of the law, “The establishment of annual and joint measures for the restoration, preservation, reproduction and exploitation of the Lake Sevan eco-system”) 65% of the 26 billion cubic meters drawn from the lake for utilization purposes goes towards energy production and 35% for irrigation purposes. This has exposed 25,000 hectares of Sevan’s lake bed.

The “blooming” of the lake

Scientific research conducted by the Hydroecology and Ichthyology Institute of the RoA Academy of Sciences has revealed the fundamental reasons for the eutrophication of the lake. Commenting on the findings, Scientific Secretary Evelina Ghukasyan (Ph.D.) of the Institute of Hydroecology and Ichthyology of the Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydro-ecology, states that, “A permanent water zone of 4 degrees Celsius near the bottom of the lake plays a defensive role to slow the eutrophication process. It doesn’t allow for lake bottom silt to mix with the lake water.” If the mass of the lake is decreasing, then this defensive layer gets smaller as well and as a result the lake starts to eutrophy.

By increasing the lake’s level we aim to restore this layer as well. In “Big Sevan” this layer is totally absent. It exists in “Little Sevan” to an insignificant degree but we already see signs that eutrophication is spreading here as well, the water is turning green and algae is growing.

Experts have calculated that the only prerequisite to stabilize Lake Sevan’s ecosystem is to increase the lake’s mass and raise the water level to1903.5 meters above the surface level of the Baltic Sea.

To this is added the maximum wave height amount of 1.5 meters (1903.5 + 1.5 = 1905). 1905 meters is that mark on the mainland from which the area leading to the water must be clear, in order to be submerged under the water. This requirement is set down in the RoA law, “The establishment of annual and joint measures for the restoration, preservation, reproduction and exploitation of the Lake Sevan eco-system”. A similar restriction was in force according to Soviet Armenian legislation.

According to statistics of the Armenian State Hydro-meteorological and Monitoring Service attached to the Ministry of Nature Protection the water level of Lake Sevan in November, 2008, stood at BSL 1898.89 meters. In other words the level of the lake must rise 6.11 meters more. (Article 2 of the RoA law, “The establishment of annual and joint measures for the restoration, preservation, reproduction and exploitation of the Lake Sevan eco-system” The Armenian government is investing heavily to save Lake Sevan. However, these measures will prove worthless if the illegal structures erected by various officials near the shoreline aren’t dismantled.

There is all the reason in the world to do just that as they were built by violating many laws. Environmentalists believe that the doubling of water amounts drawn from Lake Sevan is related to shoreline construction “The Lake Sevan problem reached its zenith and exploded when the government decided to double the amount of water drawn from the lake,” states Ecolur NGO President Inga Zarafyan and notes, “Had the issue of the illegal structures been taken care of, there would have been no need for such a decision.

They weren’t able to resolve the matter of the structures and now they’ve merely complicated things.” In May of 2008, while citing the extraordinary drought condition, the RoA National Assembly agreed with the government proposal and gave the go-ahead for 360 million cubic meters of water to be drawn from the lake as compared to the 170 million previously permitted to be drawn according to “The establishment of annual and joint measures for the restoration, preservation, reproduction and exploitation of the Lake Sevan eco-system” law. At the time, Andranik Andreasyan, Chairman of the RoA State Water Management Committee, argued that the irrigation season had arrived exceptionally early, that rainfall wouldn’t be sufficient, that the reservoirs were empty and that there was no water. Dr. Karineh Danielyan, President of the Association “For Sustainable Human Development” and President of the UNEP National Committee, believes that arguments regarding the necessity to more than double water flows are unsubstantiated. “Water was really scarce last year but, as our research shows, weather conditions improved after May and there was no need for double flows. Let’s compare the facts.” - During the last decade, the year 2000 was the driest on record. In 2008, the drought lasted from January until almost mid-May. - In 2000, the Abaran and Azat reservoirs contained 69.4 cubic meters of water and 77.4 cubic meters in 2008 - In 2000, the average monthly temperature in Ararat Marz for the months of April, May, June, July and August exceeded the norm by 1.68 degrees and by .98 degrees in Armavir Marz. - In 2008, over the same months in Ararat Marz, there was only a .52 degree rise over the norm and a .14 degree rise in Armavir Marz. - In 2000, from April to August, rainfall in Ararat Marz was 81.12% less than the norm and 40.9% less in Armavir. - In 2008, for the same months, rainfall in Ararat Marz was 52.94 % less than the norm and 25.52% less in Armavir.

“Reservoirs contained less water in 2000, that the weather was drier and rainfall amounts less than in 2008. Despite this, 189.97 million cubic meters of water were drawn from Sevan in 2000 while 302.28 cubic meters were drawn in 2008. Based on these facts we believe that such an amount of outflow is unwarranted,” states Dr. Karineh Danielyan. We should also note that lands mainly utilized for agriculture haven’t essentially expanded.

The land surface irrigated by Sevan emissions was 43,200 hectares in 2008, 43,400 hectares in 2007 and 45,500 hectares in 2006. According to the scientific calculations of the Hydro-ecology and Ichthyology Institute of the RoA Academy of Sciences, every 12.5 million cubic meters of water drawn from Sevan decreases the lake’s level by 1 centimeter. During the natural eutrophication process in lakes the bottom only rises by 1 millimeter per year.

Due to the amount drained from Sevan in 2008 alone, the eutrophication (aging) process has been accelerated by 300 years. And on September 17, 2008, RoA Agricultural Minister Aramayis Grigoryan stated to a group of assembled reporters that the year’s harvest was quite bountiful due to the beneficial weather conditions.

P.S. On December 25, 2008, on the orders of RoA President Serzh Sargsyan a committee to study the pressing issues confronting Lake Sevan was formed. The reason for the committee was simply that all the measures previously taken to resolve these issues haven’t provided a final solution. The rates of the water rise in Sevan aren’t sufficient to halt the eutrophication process. In November, 2007, the peak mark of Lake Sevan was 1898.81 meters and 1898.89 meters in November, 2008. The lake’s surface rose by a mere 8 centimeters during the one year period and this is just not enough to restore the lake. According to 2008 statistics from the Ministry of Nature Protection there are 1,062 illegal structures within the Sevan National Park. Also not few in number are those who have uncovered violations – the Sevan National Park (SNOC), the RoA Ministry of Nature Protection’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Gegharkunik Marzpetaran, and the RoA Ministry of Urban Construction. It is quite apparent that these government bodies are asleep at the wheel and Lake Sevan remains at risk as a result. "

This investigation is done with support from the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism / Scoop."