Epress.am News from Armenia
The many letters of appeal addressed to Yerevan City Hall, the courts, various ministries and organizations by the 400 residents protesting construction at 10–12 Sayat Nova Ave. have remained unanswered, the residents' attorney Albert Kandalyan said at a press conference today.
"Everywhere we say that the construction has an impact on residents' health and weakens the seismic safety of the buildings in the area. In order to substantiate this, we've conducted several tests, but immediately after that the municipality does another test, manipulates the actual findings, and substantiates the conclusion of its [own] expert," the attorney said.
Kandalyan said his clients twice appealed to the courts: the first lawsuit was refused, after which they appealed to the Administrative Court, but they don't know whether proceedings have begun or not.
"As prescribed by the law, the court must respond within a week, but it's been two months and there's no word. When we call and ask them to adhere to legal norms, they say, 'Well, they've accepted it; what else do you want? We don't have time; the Administrative Court is overwhelmed at this time.' If the issue related to a simple administrative matter that wasn't time sensitive, [there would be] no problem, but the issue relates to the safety of 400 residents. There you go — this is the situation as it stands today," he said.
Kandalyan said that appeals signed by the residents were delivered to the General Prosecutor's office, asking that experts adopting false conclusions be held to account. Also, the RA Ministry of Healthcare was informed about the hazard to the residents' health.
"No one responded to us: the law is simply ignored. They are trampling the laws that they themselves wrote. We are doing everything within the letter of the law and we are asking the same of them — let them fulfill the laws they wrote," said the attorney, adding that no matter what, the residents will continue their struggle.