“They say, demand answers from whom you illegally bought it” - A resident of the Silikian neighborhood reports

The Yerevan City Hall is demolishing houses in the Silikian neighborhood of the Ajapnyak administrative district. This was reported to Auroranews.

“No one has informed us, neither verbally nor in writing. These are community-designated lands, and the city hall is well aware that we paid for and bought these lands years ago. There are people who already live here, have registered an address, and have become electricity subscribers,” said the resident who contacted us.

When we asked if they have a certificate of ownership, the resident responded, “No, we do not have a certificate of ownership; we have the demand from the city hall, geodesy documents, and papers.”

According to him, the city hall had previously stated that one day this matter would be discussed in the government and the status of the lands would change. “Today, unexpectedly, they have come and started demolishing people’s houses. They have already demolished several houses,” he said.

In response to our follow-up question about whether they are unfinished houses or already constructed, he replied that there are both options. “We bought this when different people were in power, and therefore, different people were at the city hall as well. Now they are telling us that you illegally bought from them, so go and demand answers from them. However, the problem is that those employees no longer work there,” noted the resident.

Our interlocutor reported that they paid cash and bought the land, but they have no documents. When asked why they agreed to do such a deal without any paperwork, he stated, “We were told it wouldn't happen at that moment, but years later, this issue would be brought to the government, and the status of these lands would change from community designation to residential.”

The resident informed that currently, there are plans to demolish the homes of more than 20 residents.

Auroranews also contacted the press secretary of the Yerevan mayor, Hayk Kostanyan, to clarify the situation.

“According to the relevant decisions of the Yerevan mayor, 21 structures are being demolished in the Silikian neighborhood, on 9th Street and adjacent areas to the cemetery, which were built without land use rights and without the appropriate permissions,” he said. According to Kostanyan, all the mentioned structures are illegal and were built in recent months on land belonging to the community.

The Yerevan City Hall also provided the relevant decision from the mayor. Earlier, we reported that residents of the Silikian neighborhood were told to remove valuable items from their houses before the demolition began.