Tweet
88 EARTHQUAKE COMMEMORATED AS AUTHORITIES DOWNPLAY FAILURE TO REBUILD GYUMRI
Asbarez
Dec 7th, 2009
GYUMRI (RFE/RL)-Officials on Monday downplayed the government's failure
to rebuild regions devastated by the 1988 earthquake, insisting that
reconstruction is going according to plan as Armenia marked the 21st
anniversary of the calamity that killed 25,000 people and left hundreds
of thousands of others homeless.
As always, the main commemoration ceremony took place in the northern
city of Gyumri which is still bearing traces of the tragedy. President
Serzh Sarkisian and other top officials laid flowers at a memorial
to quake victims erected in the city's central square. Archbishop
Mikael Ajapahanian of Gyumri and the surrounding Shirak region then
held a prayer service in memory of the dead.
As he made his way to the memorial, Sarkisian was mobbed by hundreds
of local residents anxious to hand him letters describing their
socioeconomic grievances and pleading for assistance from the state.
The president did not stop to talk to them, leaving it to his
bodyguards to collect the letters.
"I'm a mother of many children," one woman told RFE/RL. "I came here
to ask the president to help us buy firewood for the winter." Another
woman, a single mother, similarly hoped that the government will
"help me a little."
After the ceremony Sarkisian visited to the nearby town of Akhurian to
inspect the ongoing construction of a sugar plant. He also inaugurated
a newly constructed gas distribution system in a local village.
Despite numerous government pledges and hundreds of millions of
dollars in aid, Shirak and other parts of northern Armenian hit by
the earthquake have still not been completely rebuilt. According to
government data, more than 7,000 families, who lost their homes on
December 7, 1998, still live in shacks and other temporary shelters.
The government has pledged to provide some 5,300 of them with new
and adequate housing by 2013. It plans to spend $70 million of a $500
million anti-crisis loan disbursed by Russia in June for that purpose.
Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgian, who oversees the reconstruction
effort, downplayed the delay, saying that the first batch of new
apartments will be ready by the end of this month. "I don't think that
one should cast doubt on the implementation of the project because
construction is in progress," he told journalists. "The construction
of 1,050 apartments will be finished this year as planned."
"Next year, we will complete the construction of another 1,980
apartments in Gyumri. I urge everyone not to doubt that the project
is being implemented and will be completed," said Gevorgian.
Asbarez
Dec 7th, 2009
GYUMRI (RFE/RL)-Officials on Monday downplayed the government's failure
to rebuild regions devastated by the 1988 earthquake, insisting that
reconstruction is going according to plan as Armenia marked the 21st
anniversary of the calamity that killed 25,000 people and left hundreds
of thousands of others homeless.
As always, the main commemoration ceremony took place in the northern
city of Gyumri which is still bearing traces of the tragedy. President
Serzh Sarkisian and other top officials laid flowers at a memorial
to quake victims erected in the city's central square. Archbishop
Mikael Ajapahanian of Gyumri and the surrounding Shirak region then
held a prayer service in memory of the dead.
As he made his way to the memorial, Sarkisian was mobbed by hundreds
of local residents anxious to hand him letters describing their
socioeconomic grievances and pleading for assistance from the state.
The president did not stop to talk to them, leaving it to his
bodyguards to collect the letters.
"I'm a mother of many children," one woman told RFE/RL. "I came here
to ask the president to help us buy firewood for the winter." Another
woman, a single mother, similarly hoped that the government will
"help me a little."
After the ceremony Sarkisian visited to the nearby town of Akhurian to
inspect the ongoing construction of a sugar plant. He also inaugurated
a newly constructed gas distribution system in a local village.
Despite numerous government pledges and hundreds of millions of
dollars in aid, Shirak and other parts of northern Armenian hit by
the earthquake have still not been completely rebuilt. According to
government data, more than 7,000 families, who lost their homes on
December 7, 1998, still live in shacks and other temporary shelters.
The government has pledged to provide some 5,300 of them with new
and adequate housing by 2013. It plans to spend $70 million of a $500
million anti-crisis loan disbursed by Russia in June for that purpose.
Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgian, who oversees the reconstruction
effort, downplayed the delay, saying that the first batch of new
apartments will be ready by the end of this month. "I don't think that
one should cast doubt on the implementation of the project because
construction is in progress," he told journalists. "The construction
of 1,050 apartments will be finished this year as planned."
"Next year, we will complete the construction of another 1,980
apartments in Gyumri. I urge everyone not to doubt that the project
is being implemented and will be completed," said Gevorgian.