The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today continued its series of public hearings with a town-hall meeting on “Violations in Property Alienation.” By means of the event, NCI brought a new stimulus to the civic movement against the human rights infringements taking place during implementation of the new construction plan for Yerevan. On August 24, at the time of the first hearings devoted to this issue, NCI had underscored the need to prepare a special report.

Illegalities and arbitrariness are still so widespread in Armenia that this autumn the country’s ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdian had come up with a special report in this regard. “The human rights defender had been criticized for her 2004 annual report, where the facts pertaining to the sad state of human rights were either under-expressed or entirely missing. That gap has been filled by the special report,” Alaverdian said. She also expressed a conviction that even after the revelation of relevant evidences, unlawful acts continue unabated.

Despite the invitations that were sent to a range of state bodies, there were very few government officials who took part in the session. Chairman Karen Davtian of the Bureau for the Implementation of Yerevan’s Construction Investment Plans attempted to substantiate the legitimacy of property alienation. According to him, the number of disgruntled citizens is small because approximately 1200 residents of that area already have signed pertinent contracts and received compensations. In the words of Davtian, the complaints by many are baseless since those people do not possess any documents that confirm their right to proprietorship.

However, the scores of citizens who participated in the public roundtable with their private testimonies maintained the contrary and presented their own counter evidence as victims of the state’s “eminently false domain and needs.” Sedrak Barseghian in particular, pointed out that the company, which received the permission to carry out construction in that zone has an enormous debt to the state. The Biuzand Street residents Vachagan Hakobian, Levon Ghasabian, Gohar Gharibian, and Iskuhi Bilian on the other hand, testified that the state authorities were evicting the inhabitants from their homes without recompensing them.

Chairman of Helsinki Committee Avetik Ishkhanyan called to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, since the report of the Ombudsman has big advantage.