Epress.am News from Armenia
Susanna Baghdasaryan is the only resident of 1 Gabriel Sundukyan Street who has paid her gas bills in full but has not had gas supplied to her home for 7 months. Speaking to Epress.am, Baghdasaryan said she's sure that Gazprom Armenia (formerly, ArmRosGazprom) is seeking revenge, since she has been fighting the Russian company's Armenian subsidiary in court since 2012.
"They even boasted that only my gas has been shut off. Why? Because I'm active. They're seeking revenge," she said.
Baghdasaryan says she got the residents together and went to court — for illegally moving their building's gas meters in 2012.
"We lost [the case] in all levels of court, but it was unjust. We first appealed to the municipality; they replied that the new owner of the territory, a certain Nelly Nesunts, contacted the municipality with the request to move the gas meters, presenting as grounds the building’s 59 residents’ agreement, their signatures. But those signatures were forged; that is, the records were fake. We presented this fraud to police chief Vladimir Gasparyan and then prosecutor general Aghvan Hovsepyan. They sent the case to the Arabkir district department; the investigator came, took down [our] explanations and signatures to compare. But they suspended the case because the municipality said that those signatures did not constitute a basis for the decision. Why? After all, until then, the same municipality told us the meters were moved on the basis of [our] signatures," explained Baghdasaryan.
Forty residents appealed to the court, along with Baghdasaryan. According to her, the fact that the signatures were forged came to light much later, becoming the main motive for the fight, but the initial grounds for the complaint was that the meters were moved in the winter when even a temporary suspension of gas supply could lead to serious problems for the residents.
"My neighbor couldn't come down. I was bringing her firewood to burn so she won't freeze. The inspectors who moved the meters said they were moved because the new owner of the building's first floor wanted to move them and is rumored to have paid $5,000 for it," she said.
Gazprom Armenia spokesperson Shushan Sardaryan, commenting on the meters being moved, denied that such things are done upon someone's request. "If meters are moved, it's only on the basis of technical safety standards," she said.
As for Baghdasaryan's home not being supplied with gas, Sardaryan said Gazprom Armenia is a commercial company and under no circumstances would they want to lose a customer. Thus, she promised to look into the matter.