Arami Street Hunger Striker, UN Building, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

As detailed frequently on this blog, as well as in articles and personal correspondence since 2001 despite the risk of incurring the wrath of many in the Diaspora who consider that the “development” of central Yerevan is “progress,” the controversy over the “construction boom” continues. This time, EurasiaNet publishes an article by RFE/RL’s Emil Danielyan. Basically, in a country so poor, the erection of luxury office and apartment buildings can hardly be considered “natural.”

An ongoing construction boom has kept Armenia’s economic growth in double digits in recent years, but at the same time has laid bare serious problems with the rule of law and growing social inequality. Hundreds of Armenians have been forced to vacate their homes, later torn down to make room for expensive residential and office buildings. Some have resisted eviction by staging street protests, going on hunger strikes and even threatening to commit suicide.

In fact, as almost everyone knows inside Armenia, the construction “boom” has been accompanied by human rights violations on a scale hitherto unknown, and allegations of high level corruption and environmental destruction. Therefore, it’s good to see that Edik Baghdasarian, Editor-in-Chief of Hetq Online, has been quoted in this article. Edik has covered this issue for years while other media outlets refused to do so until it was too late.

Local civic groups, media and opposition politicians say the construction projects, largely concentrated in the capital Yerevan, are proceeding in gross violation of Armenians’ constitutionally guaranteed property rights. They also claim that it has been driven by high-level government corruption.

“Construction definitely contributes to corruption in Armenia,” said Edik Baghdasarian, a prominent investigative journalist who has extensively covered the issue for years. An opinion poll conducted by an Armenian non-governmental organization last year found that 70 percent of Yerevan residents share this view.

[…]

The Armenian constitution stipulates that private property can be confiscated only in “exceptional cases defined by law” and with “commensurate compensation” paid to their owners. The ongoing redevelopment in Yerevan, however, is being regulated by government directives. Critics, among them former human rights ombudsperson Larisa Alaverdian and opposition leaders, say the entire process is therefore illegal. The opposition Justice alliance tried this year to initiate a parliamentary appeal to the Constitutional Court on this issue. But the appeal failed to collect the minimum of 27 supporting signatures by members of the Kocharian-controlled National Assembly needed for legal action.

Equally controversial has been a serious lack of transparency in the allocation of municipal land to property developers. Few of the lucrative land auctions handled by the Yerevan mayor’s office have been announced through mass media with at least one month’s notice, as is required by Armenian law. “You won’t find a single person in Yerevan who believes that the land auctions are fair,” Kocharian publicly blasted Mayor Yervand Zakharian and his aides on January 20, effectively accusing them of corruption.

However, no government official has been prosecuted or sacked as a result. “Kocharian’s statements are pathetic because nobody acquired land in central Yerevan without permission from the presidential administration,” said journalist Baghdasarian. “All big companies engaged in construction have powerful patrons in the government.”

In a detailed report on the problem released in early February, the Armenian branch of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International urged the authorities to extend their stated anti-corruption measures to the booming construction sector. The report concluded that the government has so far lacked the political will to tackle urban development practices that create a “fertile ground for corrupt transactions.”

“There have been no known cases of any urban development activity in Armenia affected by an official or unofficial expression of public opinion,” the report charged.

The full article can be read online here.