GRAVE CORRUPTION IN ARMENIAN CAPITAL
yerkir.am
14:15 – 09.06.2011
Yerevan is running out of burial sites, according to the authorities
in the Armenian capital, who say they lack the money they need to
open new cemeteries.
The shortage of plots has generated a new form of corruption, where
officials are accused of demanding payment for new graves and allowing
the owners of family plots to sell off the space at high prices.
“To build a new cemetery in the capital, we would need to have a
piece of land of 46.5 hectares, which we don’t currently possess,”
said Razmik Harutyunyan, an engineer with the municipal public
services department.
Yerevan has 21 cemeteries, 14 of which are already full, and the
remaining seven have limited space. The authorities say the last
available spaces will be used up by 2020 at the latest. Often the
only spaces left are in family plots.
Bereaved families have to pay for a burial space, although by law
they are supposed to receive two-and-a-half square metres free of
charge as an individual plot, or 12.5 square metres for a family grave.
“When my grandfather died three years ago, I had to pay a large sum to
a man who then helped me buy a plot in one of the Yerevan cemeteries
and fill in the relevant documents,” local resident Karapet Davtyan
said, adding that he paid over 700 US dollars to a cemetery worker
to guarantee a site.
Statistics show that between 550 and 600 people die in Yerevan every
month, so those who control the allocation cemetery plots stand to
make substantial illicit sums out of the shortage.
Officials as senior as Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan have raised
concerns over illicit dealing in grave sites. Three years ago, he told
a government meeting, “I imagine you have all faced this problem and
will be aware that corruption is simply flourishing. If you want to
receive a better location for your grave, you can do so for money.
There are no bounds to this cynical practice.”
Harutyunyan warned against demonising private owners of graves who
decide to sell up.
“We often receive letters from people who are being asked for big money
for a plot. Whenever we get these letters, we investigate immediately,
and it often turns out that the descendants of someone who bought
a large cemetery plot and was buried there several decades ago have
decided to divide it up and sell it,” he said.
Anna Avetyan has put the burial plots of her grandparents up for sale.
She is asking 3,000 US dollars but is prepared to negotiate.
“My aunt lives in the United States. I once asked her for money,
and she suggested selling the plots where her parents are buried. At
first I was in shock, and then I began to look for buyers,” she said.
From: A. Papazian