Today marks the tenth day that the women of Buzand street are on a hunger strike. During the past ten days, besides journalists and local doctors, the representative of the Red Cross also visited the hunger strikers and said that he can’t do anything for them.
The local doctor refused to give hunger striker Gohar Mkhitaryan any document stating that she is on a hunger strike, claiming that he is not competent to do that. The doctor advised going to the Red Cross. Gohar got the same answer. “I can’t prove that I am on a hunger strike,” said G. Mkhitaryan. Police officers have set the last date for the residents of Buzand street to vacate their homes-December 27. One of the homeowners of Buzand street is Avetik Yeranosyan, whose wife, hunger striker Susanna Poghosyan, sent a telegram to the First Lady of Armenia Bella Kocharyan yesterday asking her for three-five minutes of her time. It is hard to say whether the First Lady will have time during the holidays or not in order to listen to a mother of three like herself. Let’s mention the fact that not all of the residents of 15 Buzand street have been sentenced to vacate their homes. There is no verdict for Siranush Poghosyan who is registered on this street. Police officers have not presented any written document about vacating besides y word mouth…h. That document could serve as a basis for making them vacate their premises. The “Vizkon” INC keeps on bringing up “actions” against the residents. On-duty worker for the owner of “Vizkon” Pavel Anderson advises us to differentiate between “Vizkon” and police officers. “We are not kicking the residents out of their homes. If police officers throw them illegally, then you have to deal with them,” says P. Anderson. If we look at things logically the way Mr. Anderson does, then we will not understand the logic of bringing up “actions” against the people. What we especially don’t understand is why Mr. Anderson keeps on claiming that Siranush Poghosyan, who has been living on this street since 1993 and has registered only this past November, as illegally registered when even the Yerevan police department certifies that the registration is legal. Basically, “Vizkon” doubts that the Police Department of Armenia has applied the laws; perhaps it doubts that the information given by head of the Yerevan Central police department Hovhannes Tamamyan on December 23, 2005 , which certifies the legal registration of Susanna and Siranush Poghosyans, as phony? As for Alexander Amaryan, who deals with “Vizkon’s” economic security issues, he has put into circulation a document with which he claims that Avetik Yeranosyan’s family got a house way back in 1988. That is a statement taken from the session which took place on April 28, 1988 at the Spandaryan regional council of Soviet Yerevan. During the session, the executive committee of the Yerevan city council decided to provide A. Yeranosyan and his three children with a three-bedroom house in the 2nd district of Davtashen, the 28th building, apartment number 29. Mr. Amaryan, who has looked for and found this document in Armenia’s National archives, claims that A. Yeranosyan had gotten the house because he had not found any other document which contradicted that. A. Yeranosyan claims that he has written that he refuses back in 1988 and did not get a home. “Let him bring the document and show it to me,” says Amaryan. It is quite possible that the document written by Yeranosyan is not in the archives, but that doesn’t mean that it is proven that Yeranosyan got an apartment. Of course, it wasn’t easy finding out what happened with the house that he was offered, who did it belong to, or when and who lived there. “That is why it is necessary to go there, check up on everything and then clear up everything,” says Mr. Amaryan. According to Amaryan, he has paid a 25,000 dram state tax for the Yeranosyans. He did not give an explanation for his humanistic act, but advised us to ask “Vizkon” about the issues regarding the residents of Buzand from now on. However, we can understand Mr. Amaryan’s “humanism” if we take into consideration the fact that based on the document, the levier could forbid the Yeranosyans from touching their property due to unpaid state taxes worth 25,000 drams and could confiscate that money. Since “Vizkon” wanted to do away with their rights to own property, which they would not have if there was a ban, then “Vizkon” had to be interested in paying off the Yeranosyans’ debt so that there would not be a ban on the given address.
In any case, with the advice given by Mr. Amaryan’s council, we asked the on-duty worker for the owner of “Vizkon” P. Anderson all the questions regarding the residents of Buzand street. Mr. Anderson asked Amaryan and other “Vizkon” workers for some time to answer each question in order to clear up the facts because “he is busy and does not have the time to get familiar with each and every one of the questions; besides, he is not obligated to be informed of everything.” It turns out that the only thing that really worries “Vizkon” is clearing the territories. That is proven by the telephone conversation that we had lawyer for “Vizkon” Gevorg Atoyan. “We wrote a proposal to A. Yeranosyan on December 21, 2005 asking him to offer the 80 square meter apartment in exchange for the 60 square meter one in the building to be built on Buzand street. We plan on paying 30 months rents until the end of the construction of the building. We have asked him to give us an answer in 5 days, otherwise we will be forced to see him in court,” says G. Atoyan not paying attention to the fact that there is no court verdict for Siranush Poghosyan and that the police officers have considered her registration legal. In contrast to the on-duty worker for the owner of “Vizkon”, the lawyer for “Vizkon” feels that he has the right to be the one making firm decisions, otherwise he would not claim that “they will be forced to appeal to the court.” One month before the written proposal, on November 14, “Vizkon” had sent another written statement to the residents of Buzand street. According to the statement, “all the written and oral statements made by “Vizkon” until today mean nothing, and the belongings in the property that is of state interest will be compensated only by law and the court.” The last court action, in other words the decision for kicking A. Yeranosyan’s family out of their house was on November 10, 2005. Four days after this, on November 14, “Vizkon” rejected all the proposals it had made. In this case, there is no guarantee that if the police officers kick the Yeranosyans out of their home on December 27, they will not surprise the family once again by accepting this proposal which may be not recognized by another written statement later on.
P.S. The article was ready to be published when we received a letter from the Yerevan “Davtashen 2-27” district council in response to the question as to whether or not “Avetik Yeranosyan has ever lived and/or lives in the number 29 apartment of the 28th building in the 2nd district of Davtashen, due to the fact that the given apartment home belongs to owner Andranik Abgaryan since 1989.”