1988 On December 7, at 11:41:22.7 local time, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 10 at the epicenter occurred in the territory covering about 40 percent of Armenia. Within seconds, the cities of Spitak, Leninaka, Kirovakan, Stepanavan, more than a hundred villages and settlements of Spitak,
Akhuryan, Gugark, Aragats, Kalinino, Stepanavan regions were completely or partially destroyed. More than 25 thousand people died, and 500 thousand were left homeless. 17 percent of the housing fund – about 8 million square meters of living space – went out of order. As a result of the earthquake, more than 230 industrial facilities with 82 thousand of jobs were completely or partially destroyed.
The damage caused to the economy of Armenia amounted to 13 billion rubles. More than 113 countries of the world and 7 international organizations provided comprehensive assistance to Armenia. Thus, before the appointment of Robert Kocharyan as the RA Prime Minister, the state budget showed deep indifference towards the disaster zone. The “amount” was always 0 drams for the line allocated and intended for the reconstruction of the disaster zone. And in the years 1998-2007, 458,000 square meters of residential buildings were launched in Shirak marz. Among them, 85 multi-apartment buildings with 2095 apartments were handed over in Gyumri only with the “housing construction” program, which was only one of the rehabilitation programs of the disaster zone. In those years, with the support of the state budget, the apartment purchase program (the so-called BGVs) was launched, thanks to which hundreds of Gyumri families bought apartments. In Gyumri, productions began to be restarted, new jobs were opened, small and medium enterprises began to develop. 1998-2006 In Shirak marz, a number of public education institutions were opened for a total of 13,101 students, and public education institutions were restored for about 4,000 students. It is natural that the state budget alone could not restore the disaster zone, so thanks to the efforts of the country’s leadership, a number of large charitable companies joined the work, contributing to the emergence of new buildings. With state funding and support, cultural institutions were renovated, in Shirak Marz in general and in Gyumri, in particular, large-scale work on the development of road construction and other infrastructures was carried out. Many districts of Gyumri were illuminated and improved, parks, etc. were improved. During the leadership of Serzh Sargsyan, 65 billion drams were allocated to solve housing problems. In 2018, those who came to power had to solve the issue of providing roofs for only 453 families out of 5396. Nikol Pashinyan promised to solve the problem completely in 2020. Of course, it was not resolved. the point is that Nikol Pashinyan publicly washed his hands of that issue. He announced that the state does not have the obligation to provide housing to everyone. Let us present Nikol Pashinyan’s position regarding the disaster zone. 2019 September 16. “For example, a person went to a casino, played, lost his house and possessions, and now he lives on rent or has no house. Does this mean that the state will provide him with an apartment?” 2019 December 6. “The city of Gyumri must be freed from shacks. Moreover, this does not mean that the state has an obligation to settle all citizens living in shacks…” 2019 December 7. “There is a person who received the money, bought the house and sold it for some reason and now he doesn’t have it. The state has no obligation to that person.” As you can see, the facts are best represented by numbers.