The Residents of Getahovit Threaten to Boycott the Presidential Elections

It is the end of the year, and villages are putting together their 2008 budget proposals.  In this regard, the situation is unclear in the office of the Getahovit village head in the Tavush Marz- Should the next budget include the income from 85 hectares of land which, although officially controversial, were actually seized from the community? 

This story began like a detective novel, shrouded in secret.  On October 5, 2005, the government issued Decree 2417-N, wherein 84.2 hectares of land belonging to the state but within the borders of the Getahovit community near Ijevan was placed under the authority of the city of Ijevan.  This loss was significant to the 2,500 residents of Getahovit, because their village did not have much land.  When land was privatized, each plot here consisted of only 1,600 square meters.  The same decree also transferred 1,800 hectares of land from the neighboring Gandzakar village to Ijevan.  As recently as on December 6, 2006, Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan said honestly in his reply to MP Manuk Gasparyan's question in Parliament that he was not aware of this government decree.

This government decision was confirmed by President Robert Kocharyan eight months after it was issued, on June 5, 2006.  The decree was then formally printed in the state's official publication and came into force on June 21, 2006.  Seven months earlier, Article 105.1 of the new Constitution had been passed by referendum - "Land within the administrative borders of a community, with the exception of land necessary for state needs as well as land belonging to individuals or legal entities, is the property of the community."  Therefore, these lands could not be transferred from the Getahovit community after the changes to the Constitution.

Interestingly, government decree 1026-N issued on July 18, 2002 had established a temporary plan for the utilization of Getahovit's land, which had then been agreed by 13 ministries and departments as well as the provincial head of Tavush.  The contested 84.2 hectares of land had been included within the administrative territory of Getahovit.  It was surprising that this issue was raised only after the latest government decree.  It was discussed on February 17, 2006 during a session of the committee for the establishment of administrative borders of provinces and communities in Armenia.  The issue was deemed to have not been studied fully, as a result of which the committee established by Minister of Territorial Administration Hovik Abrahamyan was assigned the task of conducting additional research.  The same committee had a consultation session in the Tavush provincial administration four days later, where the 84 hectares of land was recorded as "contested territory in an industrial zone."  This was, to put it mildly, untrue, because the only industrial unit on that land was the Karart stone processing plant, for the construction of which land had been legally allocated by the Getahovit community head's office.  This land is located on the edge of the Ijevan-Noyemberyan highway and also has gas stations, petrol pumps and shops built on it and some under construction, making it very "attractive".

The office of the Getahovit community head, council of elders, and village residents have written to the President of Armenia, the Prime Minister, and Speaker of Parliament a number of times regarding the "contested territory", but "nothing has moved".  They have been receiving the same reply for almost the past two years - the issue would be discussed during the next session of the committee for the establishment of administrative borders of provinces and communities in Armenia.  Getahovit community head Sargis Ghazaryan passed on a letter from the council of elders to Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan on November 11 2007, during a ceremony opening a new monument marking the 2000th anniversary of Vazashen.

In reply, they received a letter from Tavush governor Armen Ghularyan, which stated, "…The Minister of Territorial Administration and Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan has assigned the president of the state assets cadastral committee with presenting the issue for discussion at the next session of the committee for the establishment of administrative borders of provinces and communities in Armenia."  But the residents of Getahovit know better than that and have every reason not to trust Hovik Abrahamyan - on December 6 2006, he replied to MP Manuk Gasparyan's question in Parliament and did not hesitate in saying that the decision had been agreed with the community heads of Getahovit and Gandzakar, much to the chagrin of the two local officials.

"Ijevan Mayor Varujan Nersisyan beamed on the local television station he owns, saying that he has increased the territory of Ijevan from 360 hectares to 2,500 hectares, as if he had conquered that land from the Turks, and Hovik Abrahamyan awarded him with medals," said the Getahovit community head.  He said that they had been unable to collect around 1 million drams in local tax, due to this issue - the owners of the businesses on this territory have claimed that they should pay their taxes to City Hall in Ijevan.  "Most of the land tax for our village comes from that territory.  The 2007 budget had outlined a tax of 2.7 million drams to be collected from business, but we could only collect 1,825,000 drams as of December 1," stated community administrative accountant Susanna Vanesyan.

Dorik Aydinyan, member of the village council of elders, said that Tavush provincial head Armen Ghularyan had hosted all the members of the council the previous week and promised to find a compromise solution to the land issue.  But the town planner of the community, Ararat Ulikhanyan, denied this, saying that the government had already confirmed the Ijevan city plan, which included all the land in its administrative territory.  What is most surprising is that the village did not have a common border with Ijevan on older maps; its border lay with Gandzakar.  Mr. Ulikhanyan showed us new maps, where the artificial nature of the borders drawn was obvious.  Instead of using a natural division between the communities to separate them, a river for example, the new border was protruding, inconsistent and even contained enclaves.

"They constantly speak of rural development on television, but by seizing land from our developing village, they are essentially beheading it," said Getahovit community head Sargis Ghazaryan and added, that they had been unable to present the Government with a land account, although that was a requirement every year.

Council of elders member Dorik Ayvazyan was confident that the Getahovit community administration, council of elders and all the residents were united on this issue.  They had decided at one point to block the international highway in a sign of protest, but the "ones above" assured them that the issue would be resolved.  Now the council of elders has decided to contest the government decree in Constitutional Court.  The residents of Getahovit have said that if the issue is nor resolved in their favor, they would boycott the upcoming presidential elections.

Tavush