Yesterday evening the opposition organized its second rally. On the same day in the morning the government was participating in the opening of the second segment of the Northern Avenue.
The words “I have a great mood” were used by the RA President Robert Kocharyan twice this week. First time he said those words on Wednesday during the opening of Armprodexpo exhibition, where the whole variety of Armenian products were exhibited – from sausages to vodka. He used those words for the second time during the opening of the second segment of the Northern Avenue in Yerevan yesterday. When walking on the whole avenue the President said, “great!” The thing is that this greatness is a bit diminished by the tasteless old buildings, (according to Kocharyan), located nearby. There were two 5-storey tuff-made buildings next to the newly built elite buildings, which still remain stood. The constructors were not able to find a common language with the owners of the apartments of the buildings to persuade them to sacrifice their homes. The Mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan, deputy Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, ministers, heads of communities, investors and intelligentsia representatives were also present at the opening. Speeches were made by Yervand Zakharyan, former Mayor of Yerevan Murad Muradyan, chair of the Union of Cinematographers Ruben Gevorgyants and at the end by Robert Kocharyan. Kocharyan was also proud that in the cafes and restaurants of the avenue over 1000 people can be employed. “Today a resident of the central part of Yerevan is not a poor person and it’s impossible to be employed in the center of Armenia at low salary,” he said. “Today we are submitting for exploitation one of the greatest construction projects since our independence – the Northern Avenue. This project has occupied a key position since the beginning of the last century in the drafts of Alexander Tamanyan. We were not able to implement this project even during the Soviet times. One of the greatest reasons was the high cost of investments. But the idea of the project couldn’t be ignored and sooner or later it should have been realized. And it is symbolic that this project was implemented after 90 years of its draft development – during the independence years of Armenia. In 1999 the President of Armenia made an important and a courageous decision to make this project reality. The formed group (headed by architect Narek Sargsyan) and the department of investment programs of the City Council of Yerevan submitted this responsibility and carried it on till its completion. In 2002 we launched the first segment of construction of the Northern Avenue. In fact, since the independence of Armenia this is the first example of mass construction in the capital city. Due to sustainable and consistent work this work was realized during 5 years. During this period unprecedented work was done in the avenue. Total of 101 billion drams ($316 million) were invested in construction of the Avenue and 320,000 sq/m of area has been built,” mentioned the Mayor of Yerevan Zakharyan in his long speech. “Today the Northern Avenue is fully open to the society and promises to become one of the most active and vivid parts of our city. Besides the 27-meter width pedestrian avenue a very important communication issue was solved in the result of the construction of this avenue. Teryan street connects the Grigor Lusavorich street traffic to Abovyan boulevard… It is very important that many important social issues are solved by this. During the past several years the prices of apartments and free space have increased 4-5 times, which brings to the essential valuation of the property of the population… The construction of the Northern Avenue enabled us to bring the archaic shape of the downtown Yerevan to a modern one, where in the past we had uneven buildings, which didn’t conform to any urban standards,” stated Zakharyan. However the conversations during the opening were not only so positive. When asking their questions the journalists were also curious what the President thinks about the fact that the residents of the district, whose properties were expropriated for public and state needs, applied to the European Court. “If it becomes clear that there were violations over the fulfillment of the program on redevelopment of the capital city, certainly the decisions of the European Court will be accepted and people will get the adequate compensation”, – the president said. At the same time the president added that there was no sense to delay the wide-scaled construction in Yerevan any more. He said that in any country of the world it is impossible to avoid conflicts between the authorities and citizens which think they did not get share of the cake. At the same time referring to foreign specialists the president said that such processes pass more smoothly in Armenia. He said that construction of the Northern Avenue became a basis for reforming of the Armenian legislation. Kocharyan advices the residents, who wish to complain, to apply to the local courts. Two people, one 50-year old woman and a man, who were expatriated from their apartments, tried to approach Kocharyan. But his security staff neutralized them. The man succeeded in handing in a slip of paper to one of the President’s staffers. And the woman afterward told the journalists that she was one of the first ones, who was expatriated from her apartments but so far she hasn’t received any compensation. She has knocked at all the doors of the justice system. She decided to apply to the European Court. In general there were many people, who surrounded Kocharyan during the opening. However the security of the President excluded their contact with the President. Touching on the issue of providing the young families with housing on the terms of hypothec per beneficial interest rates, Kocharyan said that such families, having a stable job in the sphere of small and medium businesses, are enabled to acquire housing by mortgage credit. "The state plans to take part in it, however, it is difficult to decide specifically how much the interest rates on hypothec crediting will be reduced as it will depend, in some way, on the share of the state’s participation and the construction volumes", the president said and added that the size of the interest rates depends on the level of competition and the demand-supply ratio. After the construction of the Northern Avenue the prices of the real estate in Yerevan have drastically risen. And an opinion was formed that the prices are artificially risen for the constructors to receive super profits. Doesn’t the President of RA think tht those prices were risen artificially? Real estate prices were not risen artificially, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told journalists today. He also added that four years ago land in Armenia was underestimated. According to the president, today the residents of the central part of Yerevan is not a poor person, as even if he is jobless, he has an opportunity to start his own business taking credit from a bank and giving his real estate as a pledge. The president said that welfare of the country is also estimated by real estate prices and by the size of salary. But doesn’t the President think that the welfare of the country is estimated not only by real estate prices but also the opportunities of people to buy those? “Opportunities are expanded and salaries are risen,” shortly answered the president.