Istanbul Properties 24 Years On, Armenian Earthquake Remembered
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DECEMBER 15, 2012 THE ARMENIAN Mirror -Spe ctaItn Ouor Mirror -Spe ctatror 80th Year Volume LXXXIII, NO. 22, Issue 4267 $ 2.00 NEWS IN BRIEF The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 Mirror Christmas Armenia’s Amb. Break WATERTOWN — The Armenian Mirror-Spectator To UK to Be will close for one week in honor of Christmas. The issue of December 22 will be our last before the Buried in break. We will resume with the first issue of the New Year, dated January 5. As New Year’s Day interferes with our deadline, the paper will be Armenia after mailed out one day later than usual. We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Death in the US Happy New Year. YEREVAN (Armenpress/ArmeniaNow) — Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Azeri Drones Reported Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern In Iran, NKR Border Ireland Karine Kazinian died in the United States on December 6. Her body was TABRIZ, Iran (PanArmenian.net) — Israeli-made expected to be returned to Armenia by the Azeri drones were reportedly spotted flying over end of the week, according to the Ministry A Marash school Iran and Nagorno Karabagh’s common border on of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of what is believed to be a “spy mission.” Armenia Spokesman Tigran Balayan. According to Iran’s Press TV, Azerbaijan has No cause of death was provided, enlisted the help of Israeli military advisors in order though some sources said she had suf - Houshamadyan Project Reconstructs and to improve its drone capabilities. fered from a lengthy illness and had died Preserves Ottoman Armenian History during surgery. However, that informa - Another Armenian tion has not been confirmed. She was born on January 8, 1955, in Houshamadyan is more than a typical Killed in Syria Yerevan. She graduated from Yerevan By Gabriella Gage website — it is an interactive archive. State University in 1977. She worked in Mirror-Spectator Staff Viewers do not merely read the history, DAMASCUS (Armenpress) — An ethnic Armenian the then-USSR Embassy in Mozambique they experience it firsthand through man, Yusuf Pachora, who had been wounded a few and later in the USSR Embassy in written documents, images, artifacts, days ago in the city of Hasake on the Turkish bor - Portugal. From 1992 to 1994, Kazinian WATERTOWN — The website for the digitized textiles, depictions of tradi - der, has died. worked as a lecturer of English at the Law Houshamadyan project tional games as well as sound and video At the beginning of December it was reported (www.houshamadyan.org), at first recordings. that an Armenian man had been killed and his son glance, seems to provide a colorful “The strength and beauty of the wounded by militants in Hasake. The incident took depiction of small-town Armenian life in Houshamadyan website is that it aggre - place during an attempted kidnapping. the Ottoman era — a forgotten subject gates and organizes a vast body of infor - Spokesperson of the Berio Diocese Jirair Reisian in history. Upon further exploration, mation in a way that makes it accessible informed that there were no serious changes in Aleppo. however, visitors realize that see ARCHIVE, page 16 The only positive thing was the electricity which had been switched on for a little bit long period. Armenian, Azeri Foreign Ministers Baku Pledges to Ensure Armenian Athletes’ Face off in Dublin at OSCE Gathering Security at Olympics Ambassador Karine Kazinian DUBLIN, Ireland (PanARMENIAN.Net) — agreement,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister BAKU (ArmeniaNow) — Azerbaijan has pledged to The 19th meeting of Organization for Elmar Mammadyarov issued unfounded ensure the security of Armenian athletes wishing to and Philology Departments of Yerevan Security and Cooperation in Europe accusations against Armenia, such as, participate in the European Olympics in three State University. In 1997 she was appoint - (OSCE) ministerial council ended this “Armenia reinforces the status quo by vio - years’ time, said vice president of Azerbaijan’s ed chargé d’affaires of Armenia in week, with both Armenian and Azerbaijani lating the OSCE regulations and uses force National Olympic Committee, Chingiz Huseynzade. Romania, eventually becoming ambas - foreign ministers delivering speeches. to maintain control over the occupied terri - The General Assembly of the European Olympic sador in 1999. Later, she was the country’s Naturally, the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh) tories of Azerbaijan.” Committee decided last week to hold the first-ever ambassador to Germany, as well as being a conflict settlement was in the focus of both Mammadyarov’s speech further accused European Games in Baku in 2015. Armenia refused deputy minister in the Foreign Ministry. speeches. Armenia of “hampering the intra-communi - to vote on the decision. She received a degree from Harvard’s Besides “ruling out any alternative to ty dialogue, economic development of the “We are ready to provide security assurances to Kennedy School of Government in June peaceful resolution of the conflict and offer - region and attempts to erase all traces of all participants of the Olympics, including 2010. ing to intensify OSCE Minsk Group efforts Azerbaijani culture.” Armenian athletes,” Huseynzade said. see AMBASSADOR, page 3 in development of a comprehensive peace see DUBLIN, page 3 Earlier this month a dozen Azeri athletes took part in world youth boxing championships in Yerevan after security guarantees had been extend - PHOTOLURE ed by the Armenian federation. AIBA, the governing 24 Years on, Armenian body for international amateur boxing, praised the Earthquake Remembered level of organization of the Yerevan championship. GUMRI (ArmeniaNow) — Nearly a quarter of a century after the devastating 1988 earthquake there are still families in Armenia that live with the consequences of that INSI DE natural disaster. A powerful tremor struck the north By Siranuysh Gevorgyan of Armenia, with the epicenter in the small city of Spitak, close to midday Istanbul December 7, 1988, at a time when most children were in school and adults at work. As a result, the earthquake, mea - suring 6.9 on the Richter scale, killed at least 25,000 people, causing vast destruc - Properties tion in the towns and villages in large parts of northern Armenia. Twenty-four years on, however, some people in the affected areas still contin - Page 12 ue to live in rusty metal makeshifts. And in certain areas, like Gumri, then known as Leninakan, there are still earthquake-damaged buildings that have not been torn down. Successive Armenian governments have promised to eliminate the consequences INDEX of the earthquake and the very notion of the disaster area, but the challenge is on Arts and Living . 10 despite efforts to provide immediate earthquake survivors with new housing. A street clock in Gumri stopped in the after - Armenia . 2,3 Still, even after the completion of the 2008-2013 housing construction program math of the earthquake to show the time Community News. 6 Editorial . 14 of the current government Gumri alone will have about 4,000 families living in huts. when a devastating tremor struck the city International . 4 These families who, too, consider themselves to be the ones bearing the on December 7, 1988. see QUAKE, page 2 2 S ATURDAY , D ECEMBER 15, 2012 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Nation Bids Farewell to Beloved Echmiadzin Launches Singer Flora Martirosyan Assistance Project for YEREVAN (Armenpress/ song performed by Syrian Armenians ArmeniaNow) — Armenian President Martirosyan has YEREVAN (ArmeniaNow) — An Echmiadzin-based Serge Sargisian, First Lady Rita stayed on top of the organization launched a project on December 10 to Sargisian, music fans and various cul - Armenian music provide some immediate assistance to families of tural figures came together on charts for 15 years, to ethnic Armenians who have left the conflict in December 11 to bid farewell to singer become the singer’s Syria and recently settled in Yerevan or elsewhere Flora Martirosyan, a People’s Artist of trademark song. in Armenia. Armenia. As a soloist at a The program, spearheaded by the Armenian Martirosyan, who moved to the US in state folk orchestra, Round Table Interchurch Foundation, received the 1991 and had shuttled between her Martirosyan visited blessing of Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and home and her native Armenia, died in more than 70 coun - Catholicos of All Armenians, and funding from the Los Angeles, on November 20, at 55. tries and also headed Alliance United Church. It will provide food and With consent of the family, the body of a music school in other essentials to more than 200 such disadvan- Martirosyan, was transferred to Yerevan Yerevan until 2001. taged families. Monday after a ceremony at St. In 2002, Martirosyan According to the press service of the Armenian Ghevond’s Church in Los Angeles, and established an inter - Church in Echmiadzin, the project will be imple- she was laid to rest at the City national music acade - mented in cooperation with the Ararat Patriarchal Pantheon in the Armenian capital. my in the United Diocese. People of all walks of life — from state States and in 2006 Flora Martirosyan Among the supporters of the project is also officials and dignitaries to scholars and initiated A Pan- Yerevan City, a supermarket chain. From December ordinary fans of her music — attended Armenian Song 11 to 17, the beneficiaries of the project will the funeral organized by an Armenian Contest Festival. it as a duet with Martirosyan after he receive special shopping cards which will allow government commission. In 2008, the singer, jointly with heard her perform last year in a concert them to purchase essentials at the participating Martirosyan, a native of Gumri, was the Michael Stone (a brother of Sharon promoting awareness of the Armenian supermarkets.