Epress.am News from Armenia
Several dozen former residents of the Lalayants and Teryan streets in downtown Yerevan gathered today outside the residence of the Armenian president to demand that authorities review the amount of compensation they were paid in return for their homes.
In the early 2000s, the state took away the demonstrators’ apartments by eminent domain to build the Northern Avenue, a pedestrian street in the center of Yerevan that currently houses luxurious boutiques, cafes and high-end residential buildings. The evicted tenants, however, have been protesting for years that they were not offered sufficient compensation by the state and asking that they be paid at least $1,000 per square meter.
“They forced us out of our home in 2004. There were six of us – two families – living in a 33 square-meter apartment which we were paid only 21 thousand dollars for – less than $1000 per square meter. Of course, we couldn’t have bought a new apartment with that kind of money,” evictee Artur Melik-Shahnazaryan told an Epress.am reporter, adding that now his family is renting an apartment in Ejmiatsin, a city in Armenia’s Armavir province located some20 km west of Yerevan.
In the meantime, members of the presidential staff advised the protesters to take their demands to the Yerevan municipality which “should deal with such matters.” The citizens protested that they have been sent “from one structure to another” for years; nevertheless, they said they would stage a demonstration outside the municipality next Tuesday and outside the government building – on Thursday.