‘This system of parasites must be eradicated’: Tigran Avinyan on condominium associations

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan has said that fundamentally reforming condominium associations is a political commitment of his.

Avinyan made the remarks during a meeting of the Yerevan Council of Elders.

“We have effectively taken the functions of the condominium associations upon ourselves, upon the city. We are making capital investments throughout the city. By the end of this year, we will have replaced 3,060-3,070 lifts across the city, leaving only 1,300 lifts to be replaced. People understand very well what functions their condominium associations have, and we see that the condominium associations are effectively not performing those functions. I therefore believe that our intervention is needed here,” Avinyan said.

He explained that during the campaign for the parliamentary elections held in Armenia on June 7, when the ineffective work of condominium associations came up in conversations with residents and he told them that condominium representatives were elected by the residents themselves, people insisted that they had not elected anyone and did not know how the condominium associations had been formed.

“Proper, new elections must be organised in all these cases, and this system of parasites must be eradicated. Parasites… sitting there just collecting their salaries. I am sure there are also numerous problems in terms of fee collection, and the former authorities used parasites for elections. And quite a large percentage of those same parasites have remained and continue to live parasitically, and that cord must be cut,” he said.