Society

From now on, Astghik Hovhannisyan’s two children will come from school and see that they no longer have a place to call home. On September 30 of this year, about forty officials and policemen took the family out of its home. The six member family is being removed by order of the court.

The residents had prepared barricades beforehand to resist the police officers from the subdivisions (the fifty residents living on Byuzand street are threatened to be expelled from their homes). There was no resistance and the police office subdivisions easily kicked Astghik Hovhannisyan, her brother and parents out of their home.

The officers are expelling them because they had not agreed to the contract proposed by the “Vizkon” Inc. obligatory contract. According to the contract, the residents were to receive $10,500 dollars for moving out of the house. There are six people living in the house and four of them are registered permanently. According to the court decision, the organization that wishes to use the building for its interests must pay $3,500 dollars to each of the registered residents. At first, “Vizcon” Inc. only wanted to pay two of the residents ($7,000 dollars), but later the court decided that it must pay all three of the residents. The company refuses to pay Astghik’s eight year old boy David, who is the fourth registered resident. The court has made a decision in favor of “Vizkon” and the Hovhannisyan family has appealed to the second instance court. While the officials were taking the family’s belongings out of the house, the Hovhannisyans were awaiting the letter from the court which was supposed to stop the officials from expelling them. The court had not reached a verdict and the case was in the second instance court.

Astghik’s father, 61 year old Hrachya, has lived here-17 Byuzand street-his whole life. His whole life changed this morning by the expulsion from his home and his new life began under an open sky. His sister-in-law tells him: “Hrachik, forget that you were born here.” The court officials did not even let the family return and collect their items after they kicked them out. They didn’t even let Hrachik get his clothes so that he can have an alternative. After Astghik and her mother persuaded the officers, they were allowed to go in and get their documents. However, in all that chaos, they were not able to get all of the things which, according to them, were being kept in some bag (jewelry and the $2000 dollars that they owed).

While the court officials were taking out the belongings, the workers were tearing down the wall, the roof and they took out the windows so that the house remained deserted. The Hovhannisyans do not know where they will spend the night. “I kept asking the representative from the “Vizkon” company to at least provide us with a 40 square meter home and told him that we did not need any money,” says Astghik. The family can not buy even a small house in the outskirts of the city.

“They have been pressuring us for one year,” says 32 year old Astghik as she cries. “We are going to move out and be left out on the street. We don’t know how to get rid of these beasts. We simply don’t know. We don’t even have a tent to cover ourselves.”

The decision for expulsion reads that the officials must suspend their rights to use the territory and use it for state needs. The state interest is considered to be the construction of a private, elite building.

In response to the question about whether or not one does not feel any pity for leaving a family out on the streets, head of the expulsion and residency department of the Yerevan police headquarters Tigran Tadevosyan said that we were offending him. He meant that anyone may feel bad if he or she has any pity.

While the officers were clearing out the house, a letter came from the court stating that it had suspended the expulsion, but the officials were still doing their job. They wanted to finish the job so quickly that they even broke some plates and damaged the closet.

Half an hour after the cargo started to move and the officers had left, the lawyer brought the letter sent from the second instance court which was addressed to Tigran Tadevosyan. The letter stated that the court had decided that the expulsion was not legalized and that it needed to be stopped.

The Hovhannisyans returned to their house which was already empty and almost in ruins. At the present, Astghik’s children live with their relatives. The other residents of the building have remodeled the windows, they have brought a foldable bed and they live in a house which is almost in ruins. The ceiling can fall at any moment because it is not supported by a roof. The workers have told the Hovhannisyans that the administration of the “Vizkon” company has “done them a favor” by not destructing the home and giving them the opportunity to return. During another expulsion on the same street, the workers had destructed the home so much that the residents who had been left out on the street could not live there anymore and were living in the house next to the ruined one.

On October 4, the lawyer from the “ Vizkon” company paid a visit to the family and informed them of the administration’s threats. They claimed that the bulldozer would tear the house down if the family did not move out in the course of two days. Ashot, the lawyer, asked the reporter to not ask him any questions and it was clearly evident that he felt bad that he had to be the one to tell the family the news.

“I will throw oil on them and myself, I will burn them,” says Astghik.

The Hovhannisyans claim that the workers refuse to destruct a home where there is a family living. “It seems as if though we are in an ant house for them to come and just tear the whole place apart. The driver of the bulldozer told me that until he doesn’t come to terms with the other residents, he will never go through with a bulldozer,” says Astghik’s mother Gohar.