By Ruben Vardanyan

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today issued an unprecedented verdict against Armenia in a case that dates to 2016.

Armenia will have to pay Yuri Vardanyan €1.608 million within three months.

The verdict is unprecedented in that the amount of compensation in this case is greater than the total compensation of all ECHR judgments against Armenia to date.

Yuri Vardanyan lived at 13 Buzand Street in Yerevan, where he had a 395.6 square meter house with 1,385.6 square meters of land.

The property was deemed to be eminent domain and transferred to the state.

The ECHR found that compensation is impossible because the house was destroyed, and the land sold to third parties. Thus, the ECHR found that compensation for material damage should be given.

The government offered to pay €893,916 euros as compensation, but Vardanyan refused the offer. He has presented figures that exceeded the amount of compensation offered by the government several times.

 It should be noted that the ECHR is still considering the case of Vardanyan vs. Armenia in 2016.

On October 27, 2016, the ECHR  found in favor of Vardanyan and left the compensation matter for a later date.