By Ruzanna Stepanian
Dozens of residents of Yerevan’s Kond district gathered near the Presidential Palace today to show their anger over the city authorities’ plans to evict them from their homes with small compensation. Having before their eyes the experience of North Avenue, Kond’s residents, who reportedly number 13,000, fear that their houses subject to alienation will be demolished and they will find themselves in the street with too little money to buy new homes.
Unlike residents in North Avenue, most residents in Kond, especially children, young men demobilized from military service recently and newly married couples, have no registration.
In addition, people in Kond have no possibility to privatize their property because as Yerevan’s deputy mayor Kamo Areyan says, “Kond has been considered a closed area for decades”.
“It means that they will give us $2,000 that will not buy us a new apartment,” one of the protestors told RFE/RL.
Areyan had arrived in Baghramian Avenue to try to convince the people to stop their protest.
He told them that it was possible to solve the issue of their registration, but not the right to privatize property.
Meanwhile, Kond initiative group head Naira Yeremian told RFE/RL that they received threats from the Presidential Palace.
One of the protestors identified the person who aired the threats as one of the president’s bodyguards.
The protestors say they have little hope for their problem to be resolved but are determined to continue their struggle.