The family of Katya Khlghatyan formerly resided in Building 20, Shahumyan Street, in the town of Ararat. The building was torn down to make way for a new structure in which the family was supposed to be allocated an apartment according to the size of the family. Seven years later, in 1996, the Executive Committee of the Ararat Political Council allocated an apartment to the large Khlghatyan family, in a former communal space. The apartment has a total habitable space of 77.5 square meters. Katya Khlghatyan, along with her sons, their wives and kids, now live in this apartment. In 2004, the Ararat Municipality sold the bedroom to Fenya Margaryan, a resident of the town of Vedi. “The municipality sold our small room together with some neighboring rooms. Fenya Margaryan purchased the lot at a price of only 21,000 AMD. How did they measure that room which I occupy since the only entrance is through our large room and no one visited my apartment to take such measurements?” asked Katya Khlghatyan during a conversation with “Hetq”. She went on to say, “Can they also sell us off with the room as well? We can’t say. This resembles theft. They have stolen my property. My son’s newly born child sleeps in that room. Am I supposed to take the baby from the bedroom and set up a crib in the living room?” The room in question measures 11.6 square meters, but it was “blown-up” to 15 at the time of the sale. “The difference isn’t all that small to led one to assume that the tape measure was off. It’s a mistake of an “eye” measurement and proves that no actual measurement was taken in our room. They just came and took a quick look and decided to jot down 15 square meters,” argues Katya Khlghatyan. Court obligates municipality to allocate new apartment She’s filed a petition with the Artashat District Court against the Ararat Municipality, Fenya Margaryan and the State Cadastre, seeking to have the sale of the room overturned or for the authorities to allocate her a new apartment. The court decided to oblige the municipality to allocate an apartment to the Khlghatyan family. “But the representative of the municipality declared in court that they couldn’t allocate an apartment since there is no construction taking place in town and the building being built on the site where we formerly lived hasn’t been completed in over twenty years already,” says Mrs. Khlghatyan. Henrik Haroutyunyan, the municipality’s attorney, told “Hetq” that they couldn’t allocate an apartment to the family despite the legal decision of the court. Municipality says it has no apartments to allocate “If we don’t have the housing stock, how can we allocate an apartment? Should we evict someone else and give the apartment to the Khlghatyans? If we start new construction the family will get an apartment,” Mr. Haroutyunyan told us over the phone; inviting us to Ararat for answers to our other questions. “Come to Ararat and we’ll go pay a visit to the mayor. Once I get permission, I’ll gladly answer all your questions,” Mr. Haroutyunyan said. The Ararat Municipality informed us that the sale of the Khlghatyan bedroom to Fenya Margaryan took place during the term of former Mayor Hakob Tovmasyan. Current Mayor Abraham Babayan agrees that the bedroom belongs to Katya Khlghatyan and that’s why the municipality’s lawyer didn’t contest the plaintiff’s claim in court. Despite this, the Civil Appeals Court sustained the decision of the Artashat Court. Afterwards, Katya Khlghatyan went to the Ararat District Court, seeking ownership based on the “law of prescription”. “Our family has been living in that apartment for 13 years now and we have the right to transfer ownership in our name,” Mrs. Khlghatyan stated. Her petition was rejected. Later, Mrs. Khlghatyan filed a petition with the Civil Appeals Court. It turns out that the same trio of judges was to review her appeal that rejected her prior appeal. Thus, she presented a motion for the judges (Grigoryan, Matinyan, and Toumanyan) to recuse themselves. The motion was rejected during yesterday’s court session. Court advises family to pressure municipality The judges merely read out the plaintiff’s complaint and declared the session closed with asking any questions. After the session, Presiding Judge Grigoryan advised Mrs. Khlghatyan to seek the assistance of the Compulsory Enforcement Service and force the municipality to allocate her family an apartment. Fenya Margaryan failed to show up at today’s trial nor did she send legal representation. The same happened during the previous court hearing. Mrs. Khlghatyan says, “Fenya Margaryan’s husband, Samvel Martirosyan, is a former police employee. That’s why all the court decisions are in their favor. They don’t even bother showing up in court nor do they send a lawyer. But they win nevertheless. They own many apartments but they still want to grab our bedroom as well.” To hear what the defendant had to say in response we visited Fenya Margaryan at her Yerevan apartment; her actual place of residence. They didn’t open the door. A young girl claiming to be Fenya’s daughter appeared from a neighboring apartment and told us that the family owned two apartments on that floor. The girls went on to state that her mother and father were in Russia and had no plans to return to Yerevan in the coming months. The Court of Appeals will announce its decision regarding Katya Khlghatyan’s petition on September 15.