Video: We cannot be helpful in this matter, gold should not have been kept in the garage - Pashinyan

There are objective data that must be relied upon to support those affected by the flooding. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today, June 14, at a government meeting, while addressing the issue of compensation for those affected by the disaster in the Lori and Tavush regions.

According to the Prime Minister, a principle needs to be developed to identify objective data; for instance, to provide compensation based on standard formulas per square meter according to the intensity of the flooding zones. "We cannot go to every house to see whether the water rose 60 cm or 70 cm. That is, we need to zone quickly based on neighborhoods. We should send a message to the people, letting them know that this is how we will assist, so that they can relax, allowing for the moisture to dry, and also so they can see the horizon of what support the government will provide.

We cannot go in and ask how many chairs or tables were in the apartment, or whether the television was a Panasonic or Toshiba. We need to establish a formula based on square meters, which is a constant. There is no need to open up areas to determine whether a damaged television was worth 200,000 drams or 3 million drams. We are not interested in that. We should not be involved in such matters. The apartment has suffered, and we will provide a coefficient because one person's chair may be made from oak wood, while another's may be made from more expensive or cheaper wood. One chair may be 50 years old, while another may be just 3. It is a natural disaster, and we should say that we are compensating this much per square meter, which covers everything," said Pashinyan.

According to the Prime Minister's instructions, the Urban Development Committee has already developed the formula, which will be discussed in the commission and presented in its final version in the near future.

Pashinyan continued, "We also have a problem regarding the headcount of domestic animals. Here too we have objective data, whether those animals have been vaccinated or not. We should not create the possibility for new data to emerge. We must rely on the data that existed previously. People jokingly say that somehow 10 kg of gold was washed away by the water. Excuse me, even if that’s the case, we cannot be helpful in this matter, because first of all, gold should not have been kept in the garage, and secondly, the tax trail of gold acquisition is visible, whether it is or isn’t." More details in the video.