Yerevan Municipality attempts to demolish residential buildings in  Aeration neighborhood

ArmInfo.Tension has been building in the Aeration neighborhood of the Shengavit administrative district since this morning. Residents report that representatives of the Shengavit administrative district of Yerevan attempted to demolish residential buildings in the Aeration neighborhood this  morning. According to city officials, these are illegal buildings subject to demolition.

 This has sparked tension between the residents of the buildings, whose houses the municipality planned to demolish, and the officials. Ambulances were called to the scene.

In a conversation with journalists, one of the residents of the  neighborhood said that these houses were provided to them by  philanthropists, and they have lived in them for 30 years. She said  that district administration officials came to them on Saturday and  told them they had until Monday to vacate the property. Meanwhile,  she said, they had spent a long time creating at least some  conditions in these areas for their children to live in. "No one  warned us about this in advance. They came and confronted us with a  fait accompli. We have small children, where should we go with them?  They didn't answer a single question, only told us that we had to  leave because they intended to destroy these houses," she said.

Residents said they even filed a complaint with the Yerevan City  Hall. However, even this did not change the situation. "We have  nowhere else to live. I have a disability, so I can't work. Only one  man in our family works, and he earns 3,000-5,000 drams a day. And  that's despite the fact that he's a second-degree disabled person. We  have seven children, some of whom have health issues. The government,  instead of helping vulnerable families, is asking them to leave their  homes. They're forcing Armenians to leave, and bringing in Turks. We  paid for water and electricity. We don't understand why they want to  evict us from here," added one resident.

It's worth noting that footage circulated by the media shows someone  in the crowd throwing a stone at a police car. Other footage shows  residents throwing stones at a bulldozer, which was supposed to  demolish the so-called illegal construction. Two people were  reportedly detained after this: one woman (the mother of three minors  - ed.) and one man.

According to video footage from the scene, paramedics were also on  the scene. One resident of the neighborhood, who did not give her  name, said the ambulance arrived because she suddenly felt ill. "They  came to us and told us there was a decision that these residential  buildings should be demolished. As for the detained woman, she was  simply angry at that moment because she had nowhere to go with her  three minor children," the woman said.

The Yerevan City Hall has not yet made any statements regarding the  situation.