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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has published a judgement in the Hakobyan And Amirkhanyan v. Armenia case, holding unanimously that there has been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights (protection of property).

The European court has ordered Armenia to pay applicants a total of €259,000 within three months.

According to the judgement, the application was lodged with the court by Versandik Hakobyan and Heghine Amirkhanyan, who are husband and wife, on 27 March 2007. The case concerned the deprivation of property.

The court says the spouses jointly owned a plot of land measuring 222 sq. m. and a house measuring 124.52 sq. m. situated in the centre of Yerevan. The applicants bought this property on 23 October 2001 for 84,466,500 Armenian drams (approximately €167,250).

Their property was said to be situated in the alienation zone and was taken for state needs after the Armenian government approved a project presented by the Yerevan Mayor’s Office to construct an avenue, the Northern Avenue, in the centre of Yerevan in 2000.

The applicants were offered a compensation of around 55 million drams in 2005, which did not satisfy them.

Passing through domestic courts, the case reached the ECHR in 2007. The applicants claimed around €880,000 in respect of pecuniary damage.

Versandik Hakobyan was a member of the Armenian parliament in 2007-2012, representing the Prosperous Armenia Party.