Avinyan, I Was Cleaning Under Your Feet, Are You Demolishing My Home? Resident of Aeratsia

“Avinyan, I was cleaning under your feet, are you demolishing my home? We are living in a dump, and you won't even let us keep that,” said a resident of Shengavit administrative district during an interview with reporters, as the municipality was planning to demolish his house today.

“Don’t you have any compassion for us? What are you doing? Has no one felt sorry for our children? What do you want? You came here to demolish,” said the resident, expressing his frustration towards Prime Minister Pashinyan. “It’s shameful how you are treating the Armenian people, it’s shameful how you treat these children. Mr. Avinyan, don’t you have kids? I was cleaning under your feet, collecting for you to walk around comfortably, and now you come here to demolish my home?”

He emphasized, “What do you want from our young children? We don’t want anything from you, just let these kids live in peace. An urgent team has come and told us we are being demolished. What are you planning to demolish? What is there to tear down? Is this dump not enough for you? I came here, cleaned up, made a home, gathered my children inside; what have I asked of you? Nothing.”

The residents believe that some individuals may have bribed the municipality and have plans regarding their properties. They stressed that the houses are being taken away from them, but not for the purpose of living.

No one alerted the residents about the demolitions; only two days ago, people from the municipal office arrived, telling them they must vacate their homes urgently as they are subject to demolition. Some residents have large families, including minors, and they do not know where they will go after the demolition.

It should be noted that today, municipal workers in Shengavit, accompanied by police, attempted to demolish six residential shacks. Residents blocked the roads leading to the shacks and did not allow the demolitions to proceed. The shacks are not privatized, and according to the residents, they received them as gifts from benefactors, and they have improved the area, which used to be a dump.