At the height of Norq, a large-scale forest area was formed, the largest forest of Yerevan, or the lungs of Yerevan from the mid-1940s-50s. In the 1990s, the population started to cut down the forests of Nork in order to solve the problem of cold, whereas the government decided to "cut" and "divide into parts" half of the total area of the forest in the 2000s.
In 2004, the government divided the territory of Nork forests. On June 3, the government led by Andranik Margaryan issued Resolution 910-N, according to which 46.5 hectares (465,000 square meters) of land plots with a surface area of 46.5 hectares (465,000 square meters) were separated from the forest-significance forest lands in the administrative boundaries of Nork-Marash district community, Yerevan, and included in the residential-significance classification of settlements. The zoning project of Nork-Marash district community was approved on December 12, 2007, where only 56.7 hectares remained of the forests. This is where the sale of the former large-scale area of Nork forests to various individuals and companies began.
At the government meeting on November 28, 2019, the former Environment Minister Erik Grigoryan said that the Nork forest used to be bigger, and the zoning of a part of it was changed and developed. Nikol Pashinyan's government, however, was not consistent in returning forest areas.
How did the forest sector alienation scheme work? In 2002-2003, various persons, including those related to the government, signed lease agreements with “ArmForest” CJSC. The contracts, in fact, were formal in nature. The lease was, so to speak, the right to purchase.
Contracts were signed with all of them for 10 years, the land plots were provided mainly for agricultural use. Depending on the area of the land, the monthly rents were small sums of 1,500-3,000 AMD.
March 02, 2023 at 12:25