European court orders Armenia to pay €1,600,000 in compensation for citizen’s alienated property rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has delivered its udgement in the case Vardanyan and Nanushyan vs Armenia, urging the country to pay a fine of €1,608,000 in compensation to the applicants’ violated property rights.

The Government has thus  been ordered to pay the sum to Yuri Vardanyan’s family, whose apartment in Yerevan’s Byuzand street (total area: 1,385 sq. m.) was declared a state interest, the Armenian Representation to the ECHR says in an official press release.

In a judgement passed on October 27, 2016, the Court claimed a violation of Section 1, Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to a Fair Trial), questioning the outlined procedures of legal certainty, impartiality of the domestic courts and equality guarantees, as well as the exercise of the right to unlimited access to property (Protocol No. 1).

In respect of pecuniary damage, the first applicant claimed EUR 1,048,097.55 as the value of the expropriated house. The first applicant submitted that the most appropriate way for the Government to redress the pecuniary damage caused as a result of the unlawful dispossession of his plot of land would be to return the land to him. He submitted that the land had not yet been alienated to a private entity. In the event of the Government’s not being able to return the land, the first applicant stated that he was willing to consider an award of compensation and claimed a sum of €10,381,842.05 which, according to him, represented the current market value of the land. The applicant further claimed EUR 12,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage.

The Government claimed that the first applicant could not claim compensation for the plot of land since it had never belonged to him. The Government further submitted that the amount of compensation claimed for the house was excessive and that it should be calculated based on the value of the house at the time of its expropriation. Lastly, the Government submitted that the amount of AMD 54,494,000 that the first applicant had already received in the domestic proceedings was adequate compensation for any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage that he may have suffered.

The Court called off the fair compensation proceeding, urging the sides to reach an agreement internally.

On July 26, 2017, the applicant lodged another claim demanding €5,231,651.

In its final judgement, however, the Court reduced the amount to €1,608,000.