Epress.am News from Armenia
At the request of residents of the "level 4 emergency" building at 3 Sisakyan St., Deputy Yerevan Mayor Vahe Nikoyan visited the building and promised to rehouse 5 families living in the worst part of this building in the newly constructed building at 22 Sisakyan St. — if families at 15 Shinararneri St. turn down the apartments offered to them. This news was conveyed to Epress.am by resident Lilit Kocharyan.
Recall, residents of 3 Sisakyan St. claim the municipality is biased in its actions by providing new apartments not to those residents in the worst part of the building, but to those on the other side, "saying to the others, wait until May 2015, [then] we'll resolve the apartment issues."
A few days ago, a group of disgruntled residents went to the president's residence, asking to establish a commission of experts, to convince them that the apartments were distributed incorrectly.
According to Kocharyan, a group of representatives of city hall and the president's office today came to their building, parts of which collapsed over the past few days.
"Nikoyan came with a group of staff and inspected the site. Everyone saw that because of the collapsing parts, the Ministry of Emergency Situations sealed off the building's courtyard. Convinced that we're truly in a desperate situation, he suggested an option. He said if the remaining 5 families at 15 Shinararneri St. refuse resettlement, the vacant apartments can be provided to 5 of our families. The deputy mayor also said he will personally call the residents of the aforementioned apartment and demand a final solution to the problem: either the residents move or they continue to refuse and lose the [new] apartments," said Kocharyan.
Resident of 15 Shinarneri St. Anush Gasparyan, speaking to the Epress.am correspondent earlier, said that in their case, the city hall "resettled building residents with clear violations."
"I was given a smaller apartment at 22 Sisakyan; meanwhile, several residents of the building received apartments with greater square footage. Forging documents, they brought and registered people in our building then resettled them in the newly constructed building on Sisakyan street. Naturally, not agreeing to the smaller apartments, our and another family didn't agree to leave the building," Gasparyan said, adding that they have launched a lawsuit against Yerevan City Hall.
Epress.am today asked Gasparyan to comment on Nikoyan's proposal. Gasparyan was not informed that the deputy mayor had made such a promise. "The municipality's unfair distribution wasn't enough, now [the municipality] is using the language of threats. [If only] Nikoyan… at least once met with us and heard our demands, then make a decision. To be honest, at this moment I can't say anything," she said, adding that the municipality, in turn, has launched a lawsuit against the remaining families in the building.