4.  The applicant lives in Shnogh village.
5.  In the 1970s a copper-molybdenum deposit (‘Teghout’) was discovered about four and six km away from the villages of Teghout and Shnogh respectively, in the Lori Region.
6.  In 2001 a private company, Armenian Copper Programme CJSC, was granted a mining licence for the exploitation of the Teghout copper‑molybdenum deposit for a period of twenty-five years.
7.  On 1 November 2007 the Government adopted Decree no. 1279-N approving the expropriation zones of territories situated within the administrative boundaries of the rural communities of Shnogh and Teghout in the Lori Region to be taken for State needs and changing the category of land use. According to the Decree, Armenian Copper Programme CJSC or Teghout CJSC, founded by the former for the purpose of the implementation of the Teghout copper-molybdenum deposit exploitation project, were to acquire the units of land listed in its annexes.
8.  The plot of land belonging to the applicant was listed among the units of land falling within these expropriation zones.
9.  The applicant lives in Shnogh village and earns his living from agriculture. He owned a plot of arable land in the village measuring 0.186 ha. The land was used for growing crops for the family, feeding the livestock and beekeeping.
10.  On an unspecified date Teghout CJSC addressed a letter to the applicant containing an offer to buy his plot of land. The amount of compensation offered was 134,000 Armenian Drams (AMD, approximately 290 euros (EUR)), plus an additional 15% as required by law.
11.  The applicant did not reply to the offer, not being satisfied with the amount of compensation. It appears that the applicant tried to obtain an alternative evaluation of his property by other companies but did not succeed. He claims that no other evaluation company was willing to make an independent evaluation of the market value of his land.
12.  On 13 May 2008 Teghout CJSC lodged a claim against the applicant seeking to oblige him to sign the agreement on taking of his property for State needs. The company based its claim, inter alia, on the evaluation report prepared at its request by Oliver Group LLC, a licensed evaluation company. According to the report, the market value of the applicant’s plot of land was estimated at AMD 134,000 (approximately EUR 290).
13.  In the proceedings before the Lori Regional Court, the applicant argued that the market value of his land had been underestimated. He further submitted that the evaluation of his property had not been carried out correctly since no account had been taken of the number of fruit trees, their profitability and the existence of a fence and a water pipeline on the territory in question. He also claimed to be unable to submit an alternative evaluation of the real market value of his land since other companies refused to perform an evaluation.
14.  In the course of the proceedings, Teghout CJSC submitted another evaluation report of the applicant’s property stating that, after the institution of the proceedings, Oliver Group LLC had prepared a corrected report according to which the market value of the applicant’s plot of land was estimated at AMD 137,000 (approximately EUR 298). The final amount of compensation, including the additional 15% required by law, would thus be AMD 157,550 (approximately EUR 343).
15.  On 28 November 2008 the Regional Court granted Teghout CJSC’s claim, awarding the applicant a total of AMD 157,550 in compensation.
16.  The applicant lodged an appeal. Relying, inter alia, on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention, he complained that the Regional Court had deprived him of his property.
17.  On 19 March 2009 the Civil Court of Appeal upheld the Regional Court’s judgment, finding that the latter had properly determined the market value of the property based on the corrected evaluation report prepared by Oliver Group CJSC.
18.  The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law raising similar arguments to those submitted in the previous appeal.
19.  On 17 June 2009 the Court of Cassation declared the applicant’s cassation appeal inadmissible for lack of merit.