Tenants of Vardashen 68A are going on strike
168 Hours has received a number of calls from tenants of 6 Vardashen 68A building asking to visit their area and see the conditions they are living in.
The building is a community living building, which was built in 1965, and the tenants are living in extremely dangerous conditions. Stones and materials from the balconies and walls are falling down on people’s heads. Several day ago a piece of stone fell down on the head of Alvard, a tenant, who was lucky not to get serious injuries. However, tenants worry that worse incidents may happen and they are in danger.
“Do you remember the incident in Aeratsia community several years ago? Do you remember that woman falling down with the balcony? Something like that is going to happen to us too. Nobody cares until somebody is hospitalized or killed in accident. They don’t do anything to prevent accidents,” said the tenants in anger and added that it had been several days since they started calling TV companies as well. The tenants said TV companies were not paying attention to them. There are 62 families in this building, including children, old and disabled people.
The tenants say since 1988 the building has been given to refugees, families who suffered from the earthquake and homeless families. This building was the community living building of #24 college of arts, and later it was given to Zikatar company, later transferred to #1 educational institution. Currently, there is a decision from the government that those families can privatize the spaces they are living in. “The presidential candidates are travelling in the regions and giving fake promises. Can anyone tell them that they were in this building during the previous presidential campaign, when they gave promises, fake promises, and never did anything to keep their promise? They come here, see the awful conditions, get surprised to see such conditions and say that they will take care of it, and then they forget about it and come here again in five years, again get surprised, again promise and again don’t do anything… They want to build a secure Armenia.
What is secure here if the citizens of your country are afraid to move in their own apartment as they are afraid stones may fall and crack their heads? When you turn on the TV, you want to take a stick and hit the heads of people speaking there,” complained the tenants of the building, who were so angry that were not letting others to speak. Rima Talachyan from this address says that she sent a letter to the department of emergency situations, someone came from there but did not say anything about the building being in emergency condition and advised them to apply to the municipality to ask them reconstruct. S eight years have passed since that time, the building has become weaker and we really believe it is extremely dangerous to live there: “The only good thing they can do well is selling buildings and making money. There were public washrooms on each floor because the living spaces for families were small and people could not build private washrooms.
They sold those washrooms too and remade it to have rooms there. We don’ have even where to go to toilet. Is this the secure Armenia they are speaking about? They are selling everything and one day they will have to sell their people too.” It is several months since the tenants refuse to pay their fees and are demanding immediate reconstruction of balconies, main bearing walls and roof. They are going to hold demonstration at the president’s office to remind him about the promises he gave during the last presidential campaign and failure to make those promises come true. “Does it have to be abandoned if it is a community living building? I want to ask the president if his wife and children would live and survive in such conditions. Would your family be able to live in this building at least two days? There are very good and educated people in this community building and they should not be indifferent to this building.
Don’t forget that we were not born in a community house; we had to forfeit and live here,” says Alina. In 2011 the tenants of Vardashen 68A building applied to president Serzh Sargsyan and Erebuni community head asking for reconstruction of the bearing walls and balconies of the building. We have a document with the signature of the head of the city hall construction and improvements works S. Mheryan, which specifically writes the following: “In reference to you letter to Yerevan mayor dated 05.12.2011 herewith we are informing that the budgets of Yerevan municipality for 2011 and 2012 does not provide finances for construction and improvement works. It will be possible to discuss the issues raised in your letter only after availability of such issues in the budget plan of Yerevan.”
The most surprising thing is the fact that the city hall of Yerevan did not even send anyone to see the building and what’s the situation like. They received similar letters in answer to their petition to the president and prime-minister, encouraging them to apply to the mayor’s office. Representatives from the municipality of Erebuni encouraged them to raise funds and pay a seismic security office to come and check the emergency level of the building.
“Some people came from the city hall, took some pictures, promised to reconstruct, but they never came back. They come here during elections, give promises and leave. It is shameful. How long can we live in fear? We are afraid to go out to the balcony to hang clothes to dry. One day an incident will happen and they will start wondering what happened. They show so many accidents on TV, but when we call them and ask to help prevent accidents, they ignore us. They are focusing on the presidential campaign and nobody wants to do anything else. We feel isolated and abandoned; people that live here are not bums, they are human beings. It is impossible to live in this feeling of fear anymore. We don’t need their 5,000 dram; we want to feel secure in this shelter,” said the tenants of 68A building and added that they would hold demonstration at the presidential office before the election.
By Lusine Stepanyan
