Protest Action: Arabkir District Administration Demolishes House Walls Without Permission

According to the decision of Arabkir district head Aram Danielyan, the walls of a house located at 22/2 Ghapantsyan Street in Yerevan have been demolished. The developers consider this decision by the mayor illegal and claim that Aram Danielyan has abused his official position.

In an interview with NEWS.am, the developer's lawyer Minas Malkhasyan stated that they built a house in that area months ago and subsequently applied to the Yerevan city hall to legalize the construction; however, they have yet to receive a response to their application.

“On June 8, Deputy Head of Arabkir District David Balasanyan visited the address accompanied by heads of the legal and municipal departments and said that it needed to be demolished. They came with 30 police officers and said they were sent by the mayor. They partially demolished it that day; when they found out we had applied to the court, they left. That evening, they also sent us a letter stating that if there was no court decision within three days, they would have to demolish it,” the lawyer explained.

Malkhasyan noted that today the court issued a decision to impose a ban, according to which the mayor's office cannot demolish the area until the city hall decides on the legality or illegality of the construction.

“By the time we arrived, they had already demolished the house's walls. As long as the city mayor has not made a decision, the district head had no right to give such an order; this is an abuse of official position. They came and destroyed someone else's property, causing $10,000 in damage to the developers. When we showed them the court's decision, they responded, ‘Oh, was there one…’ and we replied that we had informed them about it. The problem here is not the court's decision; not executing the court's decision is another crime. Even if there is no court decision and they demolish someone else's property without the mayor’s decision, that is also another crime,” the lawyer emphasized.

The lawyer informed that they are preparing to file a report with the Special Investigative Service about the crime.