InternationalArmenia marks quake anniversary with a focus on development
Published: Saturday December 12, 2009
The sugar factory in Akhuryan. Tigran Tadevosyan / Photolure
Yerevan - On December 7, the 21st anniversary of the earthquake that devastated northern Armenia, President Serge Sargsyan visited the town of Akhuryan to view a sugar factory that is being constructed there by Member of Parliament Samvel Aleksanian. The entrepreneur-politican says that his company, Alex-Grig, has invested $92 million in the sugar plant, which is due to be completed next spring. The Soviet-era sugar plant was completely destroyed in the earthquake. Armenia has been importing sugar since then. According to RFE/RL, Mr. Aleksanian said that the plant will be able to produce about 220,000 tons of sugar annually, exceeding Armenia's sugar demand, and has plans to export the sugar to Georgia, northern Iran, and some parts of Europe.
Meanwhile, in Gyumri and in the rural areas of Shirak and Lori provinces, over 1,575 apartments and houses will be ready in a matter of days to accommodate families left homeless by the earthquake, according to the general manager of Glendale Hills, the contractor building the housing on the government's behalf. (See the Armenian Reporter's interview.)
The company is working in the framework of a broader two-year government program. Some 2,300 apartments in Gyumri, 182 apartments in Akhuryan, 226 houses in other parts of the Shirak province, 352 apartments in Spitak, and 1,821 homes in Lori province will be built, according to Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan.
At a press conference, the minister of urban development, Vardan Vardanyan, said that by 2011, all the residents of the earthquake zone will have permanent housing.
Commemoration
In Armenia, ceremonies commemorating the victims of the earthquake are traditionally held in the country's second-largest city, Gyumri, which was hit hard. On December 7, the ceremonies began at Gyumri's St. Virgin Mary Church, known as the Church of Seven Wounds by the people.
A delegation led by the president at exactly 11:41 a.m. laid wreaths at the monument in memory of the victims of the earthquake. A requiem service followed. The delegation included Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian, Shirak Governor Lida Nanyan, Mayor of Gyumri Vardan Ghukasyan, Russian Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko, and other high-ranking representatives of Armenia's legislative and executive bodies.
It was at 11:41 a.m. on December 7, 1988 that northwestern Armenia was hit with a magnitude 6.9 earthquake; it was followed four minutes later by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock. In one of Armenia's greatest tragedies, 25,000 people were killed, over a 100,000 were wounded, and half a million people were left homeless in a matter of minutes. The shocks were felt as far away as Yerevan and Tbilisi. The earthquake leveled towns and cities, exacting massive destruction. Spitak, the epicenter of the earthquake, was totally destroyed.
[For extended coverage of the earthquake of December 7, 2008, see the stories collected here a year ago: Earthquake 20 Years On.]
Two decades later, its effects are still visible. According to Armenpress, the 17th-century Surb Prkich Church was completely ruined, is today being reconstructed. It is expected that construction will be completed in 2012.
