YEREVAN, JUNE 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The village of Teghut with its population of 1,600 has arable lands of 11 ha and personal plots of 71 ha. There is a shortage of personal plots in this expanding village. The village administration intends to solve the problem at the expense of uncultivated lands of agricultural significance. The community heads are going to apply to the government with the request to change the significance of these lands and allocate the areas for residential construction. Teghut is only 8 km away from the resort city of Dilijan. By a government decision, Dilijan must become a financial center in Armenia. Many residents of Yerevan would like to have a land plot at the road leading to the famous Haghartsin monastery complex in Teghut. NT correspondent attended an auction in Teghut in May - one of "classic" auctions conducted in communities. A sale of a land plot was organized in Teghut community of Tavush marz (province). The community head Gevorg Tamrazian had applied to the council of aldermen with the proposal to auction a 1,190 square meter land plot in Haghartsin Yal district of the village. The announcement about the auction was published in the April 4 issue of the Repulic of Armenia daily. The auction was to start at noon. However, the village head Gevorg Tamrazian who was to conduct the auction was not in Teghut at the indicated time. After being told about arrival of a reporter, Mr. Tamrazian called and informed us that the auction will begin at 3 pm. This was not the only violation of the auction order. We noticed that the same deletion was made in the auction bids submitted by two persons - Seyran Hovsepian and Alexander Badalian: at first they put one date on their bids and then erased it and changed it to a different day of bid submission. The sale of the indicated land plot for the purpose of residential construction began at the village administration at 3 pm. The plot was being auctioned at its cadastre value: 222 drams for a square meter, the reserve price was 265 thousand drams. The auction went by a foreseeable scenario. Seyran Hovsepian of Yerevan took a step of 5% of the reserve price. The other participant Alexander Badalian (also from Yerevan) took another step of 5%. The village head announced the end of the auction, and Alexander Badalian became the owner of a 1,190 sq.m. land plot for 291 thousand drams (947 dollars) - a land plot near the road and other detached houses, 50 meters from the house of the village head, close to the drinking water and gas pipes and power lines, and with a wonderful view of trees of the Dilijan national park. Seyran Hovsepian who had travelled 100 km from Yerevan to take only one step at auction did not seem discouraged. After the auction, he got into Alexander Badalian's car and they drove back to the city. According to village head Gevorg Tamrazian, 7 land plots were sold by auction in their village in 2007 and two plots this year. In response to the question about the purpose of selling lands in land-starved Teghut community, he explained: "We have several purposes. First of all, we need money to deal with community problems. We are building a pipe line with the assistance of the World Food Program, in which the village has to invest 4.5 million drams. We pin no hopes on other sources. By selling community lands, on the one hand, we solve the water problem, on the other hand, the unused lands will be built up, the village will expand, thanks to which the village budget will grow, with property and land taxes being collected". That is, the village will benefit in many respects. However, a real auction with the participation of many people needs to be organized in order to increase the community budget. Especially as some of the villagers are also willing to take part in auctions. The village head said it would be desirable. A lot of announcements were put up on the glassy board of the village administration, but there was no information about the sale of 1,190 sq.m. land plot. G. Tamrazian assured us that all villagers knew about the auction: he instructed all members of the council of aldermen to tell their districts' residents about the sale. Our talk with a group of Tegut residents standing near the village administration proved the opposite. Ranik Babinian, an active member of the council of aldermen had not been informed about the auction either. In his words, he knew that a land auction would be conducted but he was not informed about the date. The words of the village's deputy head Albert Hovhannsian are noteworthy. When we asked him how many copies of the Republic of Armenia daily (which published the announcement about auction) their village receives, he said: "About 50". Upon seeing our bewilderment, he gave a wry smile...

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