The apartment building located at 11 Teryan Street, downtown Yerevan is in a semi-dilapidated state.  Some of the building’s former residents had signed a contract with Dvin Concern, a construction and design company. Soon afterwards, Dvin proceeded to tear the place apart. Those residents who didn’t believe in the promises made by Dvin now live in a building that is falling down around them.

“Dvin Concern” offers family pennies for prime downtown real estate

“We’re in a hell of a situation. They’ve demolished the neighboring apartments and we’ve ended up living in the ruins. They busted a water pipe during the demolition work and we went without water for days. But what can we do; this is our home. Where can we go?” asked Tereza Galstyan, a resident. Dvin promised Tereza and her mother a similar apartment in the high-rise to be built on the site. “We didn’t accept their conditions from the very beginning. Had we done so, we would have now found ourselves on the street like our neighbors. They fooled them by promising that they’d give each of them 5 kilometers more; so they vacated their apartments,” says Tereza. Dvin Concern offered Tereza U.S. $45,000 for her 60 square meters in the center of Yerevan. “We couldn’t buy an apartment for that price in downtown Yerevan. So we told them – either give us an apartment of equal size or enough money in order to buy an apartment,” Tereza says. This family can be considered one of the lucky few as they haven’t been forcibly removed like the rest.

We are building “elite” homes for the “elite”

On December 25, 2005, Sedrak Baghdasaryan and his family were forcibly removed from their apartment by members of the CES (Compulsory Enforcement Service for Judicial Acts); the Armenian equivalent of bailiffs. “The court had handed down a decision to evict not only us but hundreds of others. But to where? The court wasn’t interested in that part. In the dead of winter they threw us out on the street with two young children,” Sedrak Baghdasaryan recounts. He will never forget one of court sessions regarding the evictions when the judge asked the representative of the Investment Implementation Services office why the residents hadn’t been offered apartments in the new building planned for the site. “The IIS official said no such offers had been made and that they weren’t planning to make such offers since the buildings going up on the site were ‘elite’ apartment houses for ‘elite’ people,” Mr. Baghdasaryan said. The judge in the case obligated the Baghdasaryan family to accept $23,249 in compensation for their and 77 square meters of land and the 55 square meter house on the site. 10% was subtracted from the compensation amount for land taxes so the family was left with around $21,000. “We not only lost our home but much of our furnishings and belongings as well. Some was damaged during the relocation and others received moisture damage. The biggest blow was that they removed us from the official property register without telling us. As a result 37 citizens have no permanent registration and thus cannot vote, receive a pension or assistance, work or attend the local school. With the stroke of a pen, 37 citizens were turned into derelicts,” Sedrak Baghdasaryan said. His son Tigran has since grown up but has no passport. Thus, he may be deprived of the right to get a higher education. “My son has been accepted at one of the institutes and they wanted to process his passport. But he has none since we have no permanent address registration. Now, they may expel him from the institute,” says the concerned father. “It still remains a mystery why our government treated us in such a fashion. What was our sin? Perhaps the reason was that we lived in the center of Yerevan,” says Sedrak. He is one of the 14 evicted residents who have taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Armenian citizens petition European Court and win

In 2007, the government of Armenia was compelled to satisfy the compensation demands of Gevorg Jgheryan, one of the evicted residents. He was paid the additional sum of $150,000 out of the state coffers. Mr. Jgheryan had taken the case to the European Court. The Armenian government, realizing that the court would find in favor of the plaintiff, came to an out of court settlement with Mr. Jgheryan. On another case dealing with an Armenian citizen deprived of their property rights, the European Court, on June 23, 2009, decided that Nelli Minasyan and her daughter, Yelena Demirjyan, had indeed been illegally evicted from their home at 9 Buzand Street during 2004-2005. The mother and daughter, residing in the U.S., hadn’t agreed to the government’s compensation package. Not being able to obtain redress in the Armenian courts, the residents took their complaint to the European Court. According to the Court’s decision, the Armenian government was granted three months to “settle” the case to the satisfaction of the plaintiffs in the form of alternative compensation. The three month deadline has recently expired but the Armenian government has failed to present any compensation proposals to the family. Liza Grigoryan, attorney for Nelli Minasyan, told Hetq that, “If no settlement is reached, the European Court will decide compensation amount and obligate the government to pay it.” The plaintiffs have demanded 200,000 Euros as fair compensation in their case. If the Court finds in their favor, such an amount would be a huge burden for the government budget given the current economic crisis. “It is simply absurd for the government to deprive a citizen of their property in return for a paltry sum and then turn around and grant the property to a private developer who will make twenty times the profit in the long-run. The government will only be using taxpayer money to pay the compensation amount prescribed by the European Court,” noted attorney Grigoryan

P.S. Nelli Minasyan is the widow of a man killed while fighting in the Artsakh War. She and her daughter relocated to the United States many years ago. They held on to the apartment they owned in Yerevan. Despite the miles of separation, they learnt that their home had been demolished and their belongings tossed into the street. The mother and daughter didn’t want to talk about the matter. Their attorney said the two still harbored ill feelings towards Armenia and it wasn’t clear if they’d return even after winning the case.