Armenia’s Writers Union Resists State Efforts to Take Possession of Its Properties

Then in 1998-99, the Cadaster Committee of the Republic of Armenia (at that time called the Department of State Unified Real Estate Cadaster of the Republic of Armenia) acknowledged that the buildings of the creative unions, including the Writers Union, were the property of the latter.

Despite all this, almost 25 years later, the prosecutor’s office of the government of the Republic of Armenia initiated a set of multiple lawsuits in early 2024 claiming that the right to the three Writers Union buildings and the buildings of the Artists Union accepted as private property in 1998-99 in fact was unlawfully given by the Cadaster Committee. Instead, the office argued that the 1998-99 acts be considered as void and the buildings as state property.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explained in a National Assembly meeting in April 2024 that his attention was drawn to this issue by the sale of Spartak Stadium in fall 2023. The problem, he said, is that during the Soviet Union, the property of the sports and creative unions was automatically considered to belong to those unions, though in fact it was the property of the state, so he said it was transferred without proper procedures and decisions.

He said that the unions would not be deprived of their buildings but it would be possible that they would be deprived of the opportunity to put those buildings up for sale.

Notwithstanding Pashinyan’s statement, the ongoing lawsuits at present do claim those buildings as the property of the state.

The prime minister added at the same meeting that tens of properties of sports and creative associations similarly have been sold. This of course implies that there may be some corruption.

At a government meeting of December 4, 2025, however, Chief Prosecutor Anna Vardapetyan said that so far the investigations of the creative unions have shown that few properties have been sold (and the Writers Union does not seem to be accused of this). However, she pointed to the Artists Union as an example of possible corruption through selling its property at artificially low prices to individuals who later sell it much more expensively.

Pashinyan at this session said the government’s legal efforts were about the proper management of “property belonging to the public” — meaning the property held by the unions at present — but were not intended to hinder the activity of the creative unions.

Militonyan addressed the issue of potential sales of property earlier in a February 2025 article in Grakan Tert [Literary Newspaper] where he noted that the Writers Union and the Artists Union each had added a clause in their respective bylaws stipulating that their buildings will never be sold. According to the lawyer representing the Writers Union, Levon Baghdasaryan, the Writers Union voted 7 or 8 years ago to never allow the sale of the three Writers Union properties.

In September 2024, the Department of Protection of State Interests of the Prosecutor General’s Office wrote about the lawsuits on its website, reiterating the claim that in 1990 the properties of the two creative unions were transferred to the Armenian state.

Another argument it made is that the Writers Union of today is not the same as that of the Soviet period, but was created in 1993, which in fact is the date that it was registered as a nongovernmental organization. Militonyan in a February 2025 article in Grakan Tert points out the absurdity of this statement, as it had the same address, same individual writers and officials, including the same president Vahagn Davtyan, and published the same Grakan Tert and other periodicals. Its bylaws of 1993 were largely based on an outline published in 1990, still in the Soviet period. The only change besides its registration is that it used to be called the Writers Union of Soviet Armenia and this name was changed to Writers Union of Armenia.

A third argument made by the prosecutor’s office during the lawsuits specifically about the Writers Union Yerevan headquarters is that the Writers Union only came to 3 Baghramyan Street in 1954 and prior to that the building had individual residents living there. Militonyan in a different article points out that not only was the building built specifically for the Writers Union but that there are publications from 1951 in the Literary Newspaper indicating that it already was being used by the Writers Union.

An initial lawsuit was rejected by an administrative court for being presented past the legal deadlines for such a suit, but the prosecutor’s office appealed to a higher court which overturned the decision and returned the case to be tried by the administrative court, Militonyan related.

Militonyan considered the situation Kafkaesque because the lawsuits by the prosecutor’s office are all directed against the Cadaster Committee, not against the Writers Union itself. He said, “We are actually only involved as a third party but our buildings are the ones at stake and we will be the ones to suffer.”

Moreover, he said, “They don’t come from the Cadaster [to the legal hearings]. They are being accused of doing something wrong but they do not come there. They do not present what they have done, how they have done it, and so forth. Whether they consider it right or wrong we do not know. Only we come [to court]. We have our own lawyer.”

The reason, he said, was the following: “The Cadaster is a state institution. A state institution will not go against the state, against the prosecution.”

When asked if there could be a political motivation in the actions of the government, Militonyan responded, “No. We have around 600 members, and the Artists Union has around 1000. We are not small organizations. There are members belonging to various different political parties. We are not political structures that would be considered opposition, or not opposition.”

The court hearings are scheduled to continue in 2026 and it seems likely that new suits will be directed at more of the creative unions.

(Full disclosure: The author has participated in several of the workshops of the Writers Union while editor of the literary quarterly Ararat more than a decade ago and is an international member of the Union.)