Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia's Court of Appeal upheld on Thursday a lower court's ruling in favor of Local Developers construction company to evict 23 Teryan St. resident Vardan Geravetyan from his apartment. The citizen, who has been given two months to move out from his home in downtown Yerevan, plans to challenge the Appeal Court's decision before the Court of Cassation.
“If the issue is not resolved, as many as 20 families will have to take self-defense measures; we will not leave our apartments,” Geravetyan told Epress.am after the court hearing.
At one of the previous hearings, Geravetyan's lawyer Alina Avetisyan, had stated that 23 Teryan St. tenants, including her client, were in talks with Local Developers owner Samvel Mayrapetyan over improved compensation options. Representatives of the Presidential Control Service, she had said, were also involved in the negotiations. However, as stated by Geravetyan, Mayrapetyan put an end to the negotiations, “proving that the president also serves Mayrapetyan” and that in Armenia “the interest of one man prevails over the interests of almost 20 families.”
Recall, under former president Robert Kocharyan’s rule, the entire territory of old apartment buildings at 23, 25 Teryan St. and 37 Lalayants St. in central Yerevan was declared eminent domain and sold by a Government decision to Local Developers company [owned by notorious businessman, owner of the Second Armenian (H2) TV Channel Company Samvel Mayrapetyan]. More than 25 residents of the buildings have since received eviction noticies and gone to court in a thus far fruitless effort to restore their property rights.