She does not know how long she will live, but she wants to keep living
at her home where she has wed when she was 20 years old, where she gave
birth to her children and where she buried her husband 30 years ago.
But some people have destructed Astghik’s home. “I don’t know why they
did that. They say that Mikael Baghdasarov is building an “elite”
building so that he can sell it,” she says, “they pore the ground of
that building three years ago. They made so many pores that my house
walls are falling apart.” The constructors had told Grandma Astghik
that they would buy a new house for her. Then they had regretted that
and decided to build a new house in exchange of the old one. Astghik
doesn’t even know who comes and goes, who is the one making all those
promises. She took out all her stuff and put it outside because all the
dust and dirt of construction had filled the home. It has already been
a couple of months since Astghik spends her afternoons in the yard and
the nights at her friend’s house.
Astghik’s daughter Lilit has also lost her home thanks to the “elite”
construction by Mikael Baghdasarov. The constructors have been forced
to buy a new house for Lilit, her husband and her family. They pay a
monthly rent of $50 dollars and the rest of the family has managed to
get a spot not foreseen for construction. Mrs. Lilit was so angry and
her words were coming out while she was crying. I was not sure whether
I heard her name right or not. “My friend,” she said to me, “just
leave. Who is going to pay any attention to what you have to write? I
am not complaining about anything. Who can I complain about? No matter
how much we complained, nothing changed. Whomever I asked for help
from, they all said that I should go and take care of it myself and
that Baghdasarov is Kocharyan’s brother-in-law-he can do whatever he
wants. Everyone said the same thing be it officially or friendly.”
Nearly ten families have left the section of the Belyak street where
the “elite” building will be constructed. Whoever was part of the
“mafia” and had bodyguards were provided with houses. Some had been
provided with rented houses until buying one, and there are others who
are still wandering the streets,” said the neighbors. The construction
for the building is being carried out by the “Interkapal” INC. Owner of
“Interkapal” Frunzik Grigoryan says that when they first came to the
building, “there was already a base for the building and we had
received an order to just build it. That’s just what we are doing.”
According to Mr. Grigoryan, some people are planning on buying the
damaged homes on Belyakov Street and “build beautiful buildings in the
course of 2-3 months.” That is why the people who promised Astghik
Simonyan and her daughter’s family to remodel the walls of their
damaged house did not rush into anything. While I was talking with the
people who had lost their homes, the constructors were unloading rocks
in the other room. “Who says we don’t want to remodel the destructed
walls? Take a look at these rocks, this cement.” Frunzik Grigoryan
affirmed that the wall would be remodeled within ten days, as for the
rest, he could not give an answer.