Disastrous earthquake in Armenia’s Spitak claimed 25,000 lives 25 years ago today

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the devastating earthquake of Spitak, a tragic disaster which claimed over 25,000 lives and left 500,000 homeless in Armenia’s north-east.

But a quarter of a century after the big disaster, many families in the affected areas still live in temporary metallic wagons. Semi-collapsed buildings in the second largest city of Gyimri and several towns and villages have not been dismantled yet.

The earthquake measuring 6.8 magnitudes shook the north-eastern regions of Armenia on December 7, 1988, leveling the cities of Spitak, Leninakan (Gyumri), Kirovakan (Vanadzor) and Stepanavan and over a hundred villages and towns. About 17% of the housing facilities (with a total area of 8 million sq m) went out of order. Some 170 manufacturing companies and cattle breeding
facilities collapsed. Armenia’s economic damage amounted to 13 billion Soviet Roubles.

What has changed in the past 25 years? How many of the homeless families have received a compensation?

Tert.am has talked to Levon Barsegyan, the president of the Gyumri-based journalists’ club Asparez, for comments on the questions above. According to him, the government recognizes only 1,200 of those families homeless though their real number tops 4,000.

“But it is 25 years, those people live in metallic wagons; they fall ill and often migrate. Around 18% of the city’s population has been living in those ‘containers’ for 25 years. We are going to mark a day of shame tomorrow,” Barseghyan told our correspondent on Thursday.

Elaborating further on the issue, Vahan Tumasyan, Head of the Shirak Center, said only the families registered in waiting lists until November 2008 qualify for a government compensation.

“Some 4,270 people are registered in the waiting list of the homeless as of now. There are 3,200 homeless families qualifying for compensation. The question of the remaining 1,100 families remains open. The Government’s promises that 430 of them will be the next to receive a family,” he explained.

In Spitak, a former industrial city, the unemployment problem stands acute. Speaking to Tert.am, Mayor Gagik Sahakyan, enumerated the plants that keep functioning after the earthquake.

“If I enumerate the plants we had before that will take me half an hour. We now have an elevator manufacturing factory, a flour mill plant, a poultry plant and a big network of light industries, and everything else in the services sector, plus several development companies. We have unfortunately a little gap of workplaces, which we are trying bridge,” he said, adding that a big poultry processing plant is under construction at present.

Addressing the apartment building problem, the mayor said 220 flats were built in the past 3-4 years, with 100 more being planned for 2014.

“Apartment building activities can be said to be completed,” he said, adding that the 100 apartments to be built next year are intended for the families who lost one-room apartments.

As for the private houses which collapsed after the earthquake, the mayor said many of their owners remain homeless to date. “The state provided compensation to the people for the private houses, but their did not use that for some reason. The president of our republic has now promised to address the issue after solving the problem of those who lost an apartment,” Sahakyan noted.

The mayor said further that they no longer have semi-collapsed buildings in Spitak. “The housing fund, as well as all the dwelling spaces and manufacturing areas – including the house of culture, schools – had totally collapsed. They have now been fully restored and work in quite a normal way,” he said.

Speaking of the town’s population, Sahakyan said it is now 16,400, close to the 20,000 they had before the earthquake. “4,003 people died in the earthquake in Spitak,” he added.