Epress.am News from Armenia
For the first time, the issue of closed and dubious auctions on ownership of state and communal lands in Armenia is in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). With the Tamrazyan v. Armenia case, the ECtHR communicated the Government of the Republic of Armenia; that is, it's demanding answers from the government.
This was told to Epress.am by lawyer Ara Ghazaryan, who was confident that the ECtHR will issue a ruling in the citizen's favor. He said this is a very important precedent, since the sale of communal lands is closed to the media, so it's not under public scrutiny, is full of corruption risks, and becomes cause for numerous legal disputes.
Babken Tamrazyan, who took his case to the ECtHR, for about 25 years cultivated and developed a piece of state land. According to the attorney, however, the plot of land belonging to the Haghartsin rural community, unbeknownst to Tamrazyan, was sold to a local oligarch, who intends to build a casino there.
Tamrazyan appealed to Armenia's Administrative Court, providing evidence, including his contract with the community, and won the case. But the Court of Cassation quashed the judgement of the Administrative Court.
"Tamrazyan's pre-emptive right was violated; that is, the right that if a person has been cultivating a communal plot of land for 10 years or more, if the community wants to sell it, it first has to ask the person cultivating it whether he wants to buy it, and only then put it up for auction," said Ghazaryan.
According to the lawyer, Babken continues to cultivate the land, and the casino has never been built.