Photos of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. Tears of Armenia
Center for the History of the Caucasus,
Abbas Islamov
Part 5
As already noted, the 1890s were marked by a significant increase in the activity of the armed Armenian terror in the Ottoman Empire, the development of which was continuously covered by hundreds of newspapers in Europe and America. Since the Ottoman government did not obstruct foreign missions and reporters from visiting the country in order to get acquainted with the real situation, reports and reports were increasingly published in the Western press, which gave an objective assessment of the actions of the Turkish authorities in their fight against the terror of Armenian separatists.
In particular, the readership in the United States had the opportunity to learn that the measures taken by the Ottoman government were directed against the aggression of Armenian nationalists and were never carried out with the aim of "persecuting Christians" or "oppressing the ancient Christian people." One of such publications is an article in the newspaper “ The Indianapolis Journal "Published on December 12 1894 of the year:
« Correspondence about alleged atrocities is another denial. Washington, December 11. - In accordance with the resolution of Mr. Gore, the President presented today all the correspondence related to the Armenian issue. Mr. Cleveland's cover letter, referring to the Senate resolution, reads: - In response to the mentioned resolution, I ask you to inform the Senate that I have no information regarding the atrocities committed in Turkey against the Armenians, or against the people due to the fact that that they are Christians, in addition to the information received from newspaper reports and statements emanating from the Turkish government denying such atrocities, as well as two telegraphic messages from our minister in Constantinople.
One of these reports, dated November 28, 1894, is a response to an inquiry by the State Department regarding press reports claiming the killing of Armenians and is as follows: “The reports in American newspapers about the Turkish atrocities in Sasun are sensational and exaggerated. The killings took place during a conflict between armed Armenians and Turkish soldiers. The Grand Vizier says that this was necessary to suppress the rebellion and that about fifty Turks were killed. Between three and four hundred weapons were collected after the battle and it is reported that approximately the same number of Armenians were killed. I trust this statement. "
In addition, objective publications of the Western press often touched upon the interest of the Christian powers in increasing force pressure on the Ottoman state by assisting armed Armenian separatism. So, for example, in the newspaper “ Capital Journal "From December 14 1894 years reported:
« England shouts with secret intentions. London, December 14 ... - Vienna Correspondent Standard reports: Germany, Austria and Italy have decided to grant freedom of action to England and Russia in the Armenian issue for the time being, and will refuse to send delegates with a commission of inquiry. Therefore, the European Commission they wanted will not be formed. It is clear that the Ministries of Rome and Vienna intended to show confidence, while the Berlin Cabinet did not oppose this course. Newspapers from Vienna, Berlin and Budapest question all the stories about the murders of Armenians about which the London press spoke and ridicule the manifestos of the Armenian society in London as absurd exaggerations. They also accuse England of raising an Armenian protest for its secret political goals. » .
It is interesting to note that all this happens during another large-scale armed rebellion of Armenian nationalists in the province of Zeitun, in the heart of the Ottoman state. The general picture that emerges from such reports clearly demonstrates the scale of the brutal force pressure, in the form of the bloody terror of the "Armenian committees", on the government and the population of the Turkish derjava, which took place almost two decades before the start of the First World War. One of the examples of the numerous publications that appeared in the Western press at the end XIX century and illuminated the breadth and variety of manifestations hybrid war(see Part 4), unleashed by the Armenian separatists with the aim of destroying the Ottoman Empire, is the message in the newspaper “ The Indianapolis Journal "Published on October 23 1894 of the year:
« Conspiracy to kill the Sultan. It is reported that the Armenians are planning revenge on the Turkish ruler. New York , 22 of October ... - The morning newspaper reports that news of a conspiracy to assassinate the Sultan has become known in this city. It is said that the conspiracy was planned by Armenians who belonged to the "Hnchakist" community, an organization whose branches stretch across Europe, Asia and America. It is reported that a gang of conspirators sent to Turkey by Armenians from America to carry out the execution, was captured in Beirut and taken in chains to Adana, where some of the group were killed by Turkish soldiers. Dr. Nevdon Boyajian, an Armenian physician, said the story is that arrested gnchakists arrived from the Armenian settlements of Chicago and Boston... None of the Armenians could and did not want to name the arrested people» .
How would such an event be interpreted in the modern world, when citizens of one country, united in a terrorist organization, leave for another country with the aim of physically eliminating its legitimate government? And what would be the consequences? Unfortunately, in the American press of this period, it was not possible to find publications that would report on government measures to eradicate the underground activities of Armenian terrorist organizations in America.
Armed to the teeth, militant Armenian separatism turned the regions of the Turkish state, where the Armenian population was present, into boiling cauldrons of merciless terror, forcing the government and local authorities to take retaliatory measures, which the Armenian propaganda immediately presented to the Western world as the purposeful destruction of Christianity. But the objective coverage of events that arose in the American press nevertheless allowed readers to get acquainted with the true state of affairs. On the scale of the bloody and destructive activities of the nationalists, under the leadership and with the direct participation of the leaders of the Armenian churches, reported, for example in an article published in November 1895 years in the newspaper The Salt Lake Herald ":
« No doubt. The days are approaching when bloody events will take place. Washington, November 18. - The Turkish mission has received a telegram from the Sublime Port, dated yesterday:
More than 800 Armenian rebels from Zeitun, Ferned and Kemban attacked the province of Enderin, burned down the governor's palace, destroyed houses belonging to Muslims and captured all Muslim families who could not escape. The rebels again attacked the village of Kurtlar in Marash and burned ten houses with all their contents. Armenian rebels from Hasnimemsur killed two Muslims. There was a skirmish, during which there were killed and wounded on both sides. The authorities restored order.
The rebels from Marsovan and Amasia, after having closed their shops, went to their church and various caravanserais, from where they opened fire on Muslims. Two letters were sent from the Armenian bishop in Aleppo to the bishop in Kurfa through an Armenian disguised as an Arab, but being arrested by the Kurfa authorities, he confirmed that there was an agreement between all Armenian revolutionaries in Asia Minor. The following is the content of these letters:
“Send gunpowder to Zeitun's rebels to resist the authorities, and buy a certain amount of saltpeter to make gunpowder. Zeitun's barons gather an army. The days are near when bloody deeds will take place. The Armenians of Maragha are ready to act and they are willing to fight. They ask for weapons and ammunition to help their comrades. This information was passed on to all Armenian revolutionaries. ».
Almost everything was confirmed. washington. November 18th. - The Turkish mission received a telegram from the Sublime Port, dated today: “The Armenian rebels of Zeitun plundered and burned the following villages: Lusikukhi, Kechkere, Musaly and Karimli. Four bombs were found in the courtyard of an Armenian rebel in Diyarbekir. Armenian provocateurs in Marsovan attacked two Muslims going to the mosque and wounded them. They also opened fire from their homes on the barracks and the governor's palace. These provocations were followed by riots and were killed and wounded on both sides. The authorities, however, managed to restore order. All the news regarding the danger to foreigners living in the cities where the riots took place is completely wrong».
Thus, once again, historical sources confirm the fact of the leading role of the leaders of the Armenian clergy in planning, organizing and coordinating terrorist activities. Spiritual shepherds of the people, Christian bishops gave orders for the purchase, manufacture and delivery of gunpowder, on the supply of weapons, anticipating the approach of the days "when bloody deeds will take place" ...
The above examples, despite their laconicism, reflect the main elements of the full-scale hybrid war that was unleashed by the Armenian separatists against the country of which they were citizens, with the aim of destroying and annihilating this country. Attempts on the life of state leaders, attacks on cities and villages, destruction, looting and burning of entire settlements, massacres of civilians, hostage-taking, attacks on government institutions, barracks, murder of governors and government officials - these are the parameters of the bloody terror unleashed by representatives of the "long-suffering" people whose photographs show that they can be called "long-suffering" only because of the great multitude of suffering that they caused to their country:
It is a historical fact that the activities of countless Armenian "revolutionary committees", "secret organizations", terrorist groups and armed bandit formations were carried out during the described period. with the absolute confidence of Armenian nationalists that in this way the ground was prepared for the upcoming large-scale military aggression against the Turkish state. It is obvious that the development of the ideological basis of Armenian nationalism and its massive propaganda through church institutions, the formation of a national-political leadership, the provision of all kinds of assistance for unlimited funding and first-class weapons of tens of thousands of Armenian militants - all this was part of the global strategic plan of the Christian powers to destroy the greatest Muslim state. in history. The confidence of the leadership of the Armenian separatism in the inevitability of a large-scale military conflict was explained by the proximity of their leaders to the government circles of European countries and tsarist Russia and their dedication to the long-term strategic plans of the leading Christian powers for the imminent destruction and division of the territory of the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence, which later received the status of sovereign states. Publications covering these circumstances also appeared in the Western press of the late 19th century, and an article by the American correspondent of the newspaper “ The san francisco call "Dated April 18 1895 of the year:
« preparation for war. The Armenians are proposing to start a war of liberation in May. There is a hidden weapon. Leaders promise an attack on Constantinople as the main event. Massacre is expected. Their plans are kept secret, but people are excited to the limit.
I AM traveled many hundreds of miles in Russia and Persia and visited the Armenian colonies far in the east, up to the Caspian Sea, and far in the south, up to the city of Tehran, and learned, after careful research and rechecking of the facts, that the Armenian question would soon reach an acute and painful crisis.In fact, Armenia is preparing for war. The revolutionary party now has both money and weapons. Over the past eight weeks, money has flowed into the revolutionary treasury from the Armenian colonies in Batumi, Tiflis, Baku, Yerevan, Echmiadzin and other places in Russia, as well as from Rasht, Qazvin, Tehran, Tabriz, Khoy and other cities of Persia. The central idea in planning the military campaign is the general uprising of Armenians throughout the Turkish Empire throughout the month of May. The leaders promised the people in the eastern part of Armenia that the main attack would be carried out in the city of Constantinople itself and that the brunt of the battle would fall on the Armenian inhabitants of this city, but this could only be a trick in order to cheer up the faint of heart in Van, Bitlis and Mush.
The Armenians have at least 4,000 Martini-Henry rifles hidden in secret locations in the mountains near Lake Van. For a handful of untrained Armenians, deliberately starting a battle with the 300,000 regular army of the Turkish Empire would be foolishness, too colossal for human comprehension; however, the aim is not to force Turkey to come to terms in a fair fight, but to resolve the dispute through the intervention of European powers. Before this revolution turns three months, the European powers, as the Armenians believe, will have to take part in the conflict. , for the brutality, violence and bloodshed in this struggle will be so incredibly terrible that Christian humanity will be forced to intervene. They hope that then Armenia will get its freedom.
For the most part, the revolutionary leaders belong to the younger generation of Armenians, who argue that it will not be worse if several thousand Armenians are killed in a few months or years. It is difficult to say to what extent the plans of the revolutionary leaders are approved by the Armenian people as a whole. I seriously doubt that these plans are known in detail to more than five percent of Armenians. However, there are true patriots who believe that in order to free Armenia from the terrible depth into which it is immersed, they must condemn some of their compatriots to torture, violence and death. There is a belief in Europe that Russia wants to make Armenians Russian subjects by annexing the eastern part of Turkey. Oddly enough, this conviction is not shared by the Russians in the Caucasus region. Georgians will certainly be unhappy with the further growth of the Armenian population. Armenian business practices are generally frowned upon by Georgians and Russians. Therefore, it is considered likely that Russia wants to acquire Armenians, but whether it wants Turkish territory where Armenians live is a completely different question. For the most part, the average Armenian longs for someone else to participate in his battles, and he wants to believe that England and Russia are just waiting for a chance to come and dismember the Turkish Empire. Armenian newspapers in Russia and Persia do not contain the slightest, even remote, hint of their preparation for an uprising, but contain only denunciations of Turkish tyranny and demands for the fulfillment of the sixty-first article of the Berlin Treaty. The lower classes are less reserved. This is especially pronounced in Tiflis, where they drink vodka and walk the streets, demanding the Armenian king. As the time of the revolutionary uprising approaches, the words of the Armenian Catholicos Monsignor Khrimyan take on special significance: –Armenia is in a difficult situation, but its suffering will soon end».
Let us recall once again that in our study we approached 1894–1895 years and we are talking about that bloody terror and those large-scale operations of the hybrid war, which many years before the entry of the Turkish state into the First World War (November 2, 1914), had already been deployed inside the Ottoman Empire by thousands of Armenian nationalists armed to the teeth.
Varmed aggression and bloody terror of militant Armenian nationalism, which grew during XIXcenturies and brought to the scale of a military conflict on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, are a deliberately created precondition for the tragic events in which all the peoples of eastern Anatolia and the southern Caucasus suffered, (including the Armenians themselves) during the First World War.
Aggressive pressure on the Ottoman government reached such proportions that state structures practically did not have time to timely prevent the next attacks of the Armenian terror. These circumstances are also reflected in numerous publications in the American press. One example is an article published on November 1 1895 years in the newspaper Forrest City Times ":
« Constantinople, 30 October. – The military commanders in Bayburt telegraphed the incident at that location. According to the commander, ten shots were fired from the Armenian quarter at the Muslims, of which several were fatally wounded. Muslims closed their shops and took up arms to protect themselves. A clash ensued, as a result of which many were killed and wounded on both sides. It was also officially reported that there were riots in Marash and Zeytun, where Armenians attacked Muslims without any reason.
An official message from the commander of the Fourth Army Corps states that Major Bekir Efendi of the 38th Hamidi Cavalry Regiment was burned alive on October 4 in the church in Diadin. His charred remains were found outside the church the next day. An investigation has begun in this case.
All because of Armenian arrogance . London, October 30. - Morning Post printed over two columns with a translation of a report prepared by Nazim Pasha, Turkish Minister of Police, on the recent riots in Constantinople. It consists mainly of detailed accusations against the Armenians, on whose insolence and criminality all events rest. Summing up the incidents Nazim Pasha says: - “The purpose of the uprising was the equal division of property, wealth and estates, the establishment of democratic government, the abolition of religious power and marriage, with the ultimate goal of producing anarchy and, united with the nihilists and anarchists of other European countries, to wrest the reins of government from the rulers these states ”. The Minister of Police refers to an article published on September 1 in the newspaper “ New York Haik"(Armenian edition in New York - A.I.) and insisting that a revolutionary movement should begin in Constantinople. The report concluded with a statement that it had been proven that all previous uprisings and revolts were exclusively malicious, vile and inhuman activities of the Armenian Revolutionary Committee.» .
Thus, it is obvious that the Turkish government, despite the enormous efforts and losses it suffered in the hybrid war imposed on it, was practically unable, due to the significant increase in the number of armed actions of Armenian nationalists, to prevent unexpected terrorist attacks and reacted mainly to crimes that have already been committed.
Previous publications have repeatedly spoken about the peculiar attitude of Armenians towards their own churches, which they turned into warehouses for weapons, ammunition, explosives, bomb-making shops and underground printing houses, which printed proclamations calling for armed uprisings, murders and pogroms. However, in this publication, another feature of this peculiarity was revealed - it turns out that people in the Armenian church could be burned by performing ritual sacrifices.
In addition, the American press highlighted another feature of the intense subversive activities of the so-called “Armenian revolutionary committees”. It became known that in addition to aggressive ethnic nationalism, Armenian “revolutionaries” used the latest trends of “communist” and “anarchist” views on the destruction of the state, property and traditional institutions of marriage and family in order to incite bloody unrest in the country.
V 1894-1895 The Ottoman Empire was literally engulfed in the flames of Armenian terror, which, as can be seen from the countless publications of that time, the Western press preferred to call the “revolutionary uprising”. But, despite the obviously anti-Turkish position, which was taken by almost all Western media, which made every effort to vilify not only the image of the Turkish government, but also the entire Muslim population of the empire, objective coverage of the events, nevertheless, regularly took place on the pages American press. One example is an article in the newspaper “ The Guthrie Daily Leader »Dated October 4 1895 of the year:
« uprising in constantinople. Armenians and Turks got involved in the conflict ... many were killed.Mr. Torrell reports. Washington, 3 October. - Secretary Olney received a telegram from Mr. Torrell, Secretary of the United States in Constantinople. On Monday, several hundred Armenians marched against the government, demanding damages. The patriarch tried to prevent it. There was a clash between the Armenians and the police. Perhaps about sixty Turks and Armenians were killed, among them a Turkish major, and many were wounded. The Armenians had pistols. Several more people were killed yesterday. Eighty people were killed last night and several hundred were arrested. The government believes that the demonstration was organized by the leaders of the Gnchakist revolutionaries, who were arrested. A lot of terrible things are happening. I think the government will be able to resist fanaticism.
Constantinople, October 3rd. – Five hundred arrests were made here in connection with the recent revolt of the Armenians. The government is seriously concerned and the garrison is under arms. Trouble among Armenians in this city has been brewing for a long time, and the bitterness against the authorities grows stronger as weeks after weeks pass without the Turkish government accepting the reform scheme in Armenia proposed by the representatives of the powers. The long-smoldering fires of discontent, carefully fanned by the Armenian instigators, finally flared up. The Turkish government, in its efforts to appease the fears of all parties, sent a reassuring circular letter to the diplomatic representatives of various foreign countries present here. It is said that utmost concern reigns in the palace and all measures are taken to prevent further riots by disgruntled Armenians.».
The propaganda of Armenian nationalism to this day insists that “peaceful” actions of Armenians took place in the Ottoman Empire, which were “brutally” suppressed by the Turkish government solely because of their extreme dislike for Christians. But hardly anyone dares to call a peaceful demonstration hundreds of "revolutionaries" armed with pistols, marching in the capital of the country and opening fire to kill the police and civilians. In any country, in the past and present, it has been called and will always be called armed terror., witnessed in this case by an American minister.
However, the Western press published not only objective information about the events that took place in the Ottoman Empire. Following the general strategy of whipping up hostility towards the Turkish state, it also provided its pages for the most disgusting lies that the ideologues and propagandists of Armenian nationalism could invent. For decades before the advent of Nazi propaganda, they already acted on the principle "the more monstrous the lie, the more willingly they will believe in it." An example of the dirty slander thrown into the information environment of Christian countries in order to shock and maximally embitter their inhabitants against the Ottoman state and the entire Muslim world is the publication of the newspaper reporter “ Washburn Leader »From June 1 1895 of the year:
« fed human flesh.Horrible history of Turkish brutality in Armenia. Mr. Paton's investigation along the Persian border has outlined the facts that I have accidentally obtained over the past eight weeks. The massacres were so terrible that even the chronic exaggerations of the Armenian consciousness are unable to add anything to them. Mr. Paton was accompanied on this trip by Dr. Wright, an American missionary based in Salmas. These gentlemen took testimony that when Turkish soldiers and Kurds appeared in a certain village, they killed some of the peasants who dared to protest against their tyranny, and many of those killed were chopped up, thrown into cauldrons and cooked like beef. After that, the cooked pieces were given to the peasants for food. Unhappy peasants were forced to eat their friends to the last morsel. In another village, a group of Kurds found a child sleeping in a cradle. They turned the cradle over and strangled the baby. After that, they chopped up his body and roasted the pieces over the fire. In the end, they forced family members, including the mother of the child, to eat these fried pieces.».
This libel does not stand up to scrutiny. Its author presents under the guise of "fact" that a certain hearing, once accidentally heard them from some nameless source, allegedly confirmed by "taking readings" from another nameless source on how some turkish soldiers some nameless commander from some nameless units appeared in some nameless village and killing nameless residents, decided to chop the dead into pieces in order to boil them in boilers and force-feed the rest of the population nameless villages. Such examples of "monstrous lies" worthy of the times of Nazi propaganda did not appear by chance and were calculated on the trust of the multimillion philistine masses of Christian countries - the very masses who were to destroy the Muslim power in the coming world war. This dirty lie was also invented to disguise the crimes of the bloody terror unleashed in the Ottoman Empire by the “Armenian revolutionaries” and continued for several decades, so that against the background of these cynical insinuations about “cruel savages”, the Armenians looked like a “unfortunate”, “oppressed” and “long-suffering” people , "Groaning" under the heel of "bloodthirsty barbarians".
However, in fairness, it should be noted that such stories appeared in the American press quite rarely. Much more often there were published reports of absurd exaggerations, which abounded in information received by publishers from Armenian primary sources in Turkey. An example of such publications is an article in the newspaper “ The Evening Times "Published on October 4 1895 of the year. Moreover, the article is interesting in that it contains the statements of the representative of Britain, which traditionally held a pro-Armenian position:
« as the Briton sees it. Claims that reports of violence were grossly exaggerated, the reported massacres never occurred and that the Armenians were armed and well organized. London, October 4th. - Newspaper correspondent Pall Mall in Constantinople, sent an interview with a European delegate to the commission of inquiry, which conducted an inquiry in Sasun regarding the alleged atrocities committed in that part of Armenia. The delegate states that correspondents' allegations of violence, especially Mr Dillon's Daily Telegraph from London and its contemporaries are gross exaggerations. When the commission's report is published, it will be found that the death toll in the course of hostilities during the capture of the villages of Senial, Shernak, Geliguzan and other battles does not exceed 300 to 500.
Somewhat exaggerated . There is no evidence, the delegate said, for the number of people killed or the injuries inflicted on women and children. The discovery of forty bodies buried in a pit in Geliguzan, on which the correspondents made so much money, and the story of women throwing themselves off cliffs to avoid dishonor. - turned out to be an absolute fiction The delegate claims that the report of the commission members will also refute the stories of massacres and rape of women and show that only one mobile column of regular Turkish troops acted against the Armenians, who were very well supplied with firearms.
CorrespondentExchange Telegraph Company in Constantinople telegraphed that the report of the commission of inquiry, located in Sasun, would fully expose the sensational stories of murder, violence, etc., which were so persistently disseminated. Instead of 30 Of the 1,000 Christians who were allegedly expelled, the report will show that the total population of the affected areas, Muslim and Christian combined, does not exceed 4,000.
Armenians are well armed . It will also be shown that the Armenians were not at all mercilessly massacred, being in a state of helplessness and being unarmed, but on the contrary, they were well armed and very energetically opposed the troops. The stories of the looting and horrific atrocities of the Kurds in the conflict are pure fiction, since the Kurds did not participate in any battle. In short, the correspondent notes, the whole case is greatly exaggerated; absolutely groundless stories of terrible massacres were invented by Armenian lies and were encouraged by political motives ».
This publication reflects the official conclusion of an international commission made up of representatives of Christian countries and convened to investigate the events in the Ottoman Empire precisely because of the flow of the false information that was spread by the propaganda of Armenian nationalism. The results of the investigation, which completely refuted the lies about the "persecution" of Christians, about the "mass slaughter", about the "defenselessness" and "disarmament" of Armenians, became the property of the world community. However, these revelations did not in the least affect the plans and purposeful destructive activities of the Armenian "secret committees", both in the Ottoman Empire and beyond ...
To be continued.
In 1988, the most catastrophic earthquake in the history of the Soviet Union occurred in northwestern Armenia. It happened on December 7 at about 12 noon local time. The epicenter of the disaster fell on the city of Spitak, where shocks with a magnitude of 10 points were recorded.
In neighboring Leninakan, tremors of 7.2 were recorded. In terms of power, this earthquake can only be compared with the explosion of ten nuclear bombs, in TNT equivalent to those dropped on the Japanese Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
The monstrous power of the elements
Spitak (another name - Leninakan) earthquake lasted only some 30 seconds. During this time, the city was completely wiped off the face of the earth. Neighboring settlements also suffered greatly. The tremors were well felt in Tbilisi, Yerevan and many other Armenian and Georgian cities. They caused such a wave of such force that it circled the planet 2 times and was perfectly felt in Asia, America and on other continents.
Victims and destruction
During those fatal 30 seconds, while lithospheric shifts took place underground, 25 thousand people died in Spitak. The spontaneously captured the territory in which more than a million citizens lived. In addition to such a colossal death toll, many thousands of crippled and homeless residents became victims of the earthquake. 20 thousand people were left disabled for life. 514 thousand Armenians were literally on the streets in December.
In addition to the cities of Spitak and Leninakan, another 300 cities and towns of the Armenian SSR suffered. 58 villages were destroyed to the ground. The northern region of the country was completely paralyzed. The nuclear power plant was shut down to avoid an accident. The power of the elements swept away 40% of the country's industrial enterprises. In the area of Spitak, the industrial center of Armenia, the entire infrastructure was completely destroyed. Until now, Armenia has not been able to recover such losses.
Humanitarian aid
Mikhail Gorbachev, only learning about the tragedy, interrupted his international visit and flew to the Armenian SSR. He immediately requested humanitarian aid from all those who were not indifferent. The USA, France, Belgium, Israel, Russia, Norway and 105 other world powers took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the earthquake. Hundreds of thousands of victims were accommodated wherever possible: in hostels, luxury hotels, even in non-residential buildings.
In the process of eliminating the consequences of the disaster, there were no casualties. Two planes delivering humanitarian cargo crashed (Soviet and Yugoslavian). The third day after the incident in Spitak was declared in the Soviet Union a national day of mourning. On a hill in the city of Gyumri, where numerous victims were buried, a one-of-a-kind church, entirely made of metal, was subsequently erected. It is dedicated to the victims of the Spitak tragedy.
Here I propose to digress a little from our acquaintance with Armenia and completely immerse ourselves in history. In the city of Gyumri, the shadow of the terrible earthquake of 1988 lies on everything, and, in general, the scale of the tragedy is so great that I considered this topic worthy of a separate article.
The disaster happened on December 7, 1988. To one degree or another, the earthquake was felt over a vast territory from the Black to the Caspian Sea from east to west and from Grozny to the Iraqi border with Iran from North to South. The epicenter of a 10-point earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 was located 6-7 km northwest of Spitak.
The previous earthquake of comparable strength on the territory of the USSR occurred in Ashgabat in 1948. And the next biggest disaster - Chernobyl, from the moment of which not even two years have passed. It seems that some forces were deliberately shaking our country, helping to destroy the remnants of the Soviet Union.
The earthquake engulfed about 40% of the territory of Armenia... The city of Spitak and 58 villages were completely destroyed, followed by Leninakan (Gyumri), Stepanavan, Kirovakan (Vanadzor) and more than 300 settlements.
Earthquake victims
The earthquake was accompanied by frost and strong winds, which added its share to the number of casualties and difficulties in the work of rescuers.
The data in different sources is slightly different, but more or less similar. According to the memorial inscription near the monument to the victims of the earthquake in Gyumri:
- Fatalities: more than 25 thousand people
- Become disabled: 140 thousand people
- Retrieved from the rubble alive: 16 thousand people
- Left homeless: more than a million (according to other sources - 520 thousand people, but still a lot)
Armenia was helped by the whole world. Aircraft with humanitarian aid, troops and volunteers were sent from 110 countries. At the time of the Spitak earthquake, I was 10 years old, and I clearly remember how my grandmother collected warm clothes in a large parcel, especially a coat with a fur collar. I still wanted to put in my pocket some kind of encouraging note, maybe even with an address, so that later, when everything settled down, I could make friends with an unknown recipient. But I never figured out what to write.
At first, looting flourished in the affected cities, then all territories were taken under the control of the troops, and they began to shoot on the spot for looting. In addition to volunteers and rescuers, teams appeared that made a paid clearing of rubble. In general, many people made good money on what happened (based on the materials of these memories).
Several photos from the scene.
Causes of the earthquake and destruction
Here you can fantasize a lot, so I'll just present what I have read / heard without claiming to be true.
Many citizens agree that the Spitak earthquake was the result of tests of climate weapons. One man in Gyumri said that after the earthquake, large areas near Spitak were completely cordoned off, so much so that even rescuers could not get there. He was completely sure that there was something to hide.
On the other hand, if you remember how densely our territories were packed with a variety of military objects, it will be clear that even without climate weapons in the destroyed parts and warehouses, there was something to protect. Well, and the fact that it could cost someone's life, hardly anyone then worried (however, I do not think that anyone can worry about it now, remember Krymsk).
In addition to the earthquake itself, the reason for such monstrous destruction was our Soviet mismanagement, which was especially manifested in civil construction, and by the end of perestroika, which, perhaps, reached its apogee. In particular, in order to reduce the cost and accelerate the production of housing, the seismic hazard of the area was specially underestimated in the documentation.
"Powerful tremors shook off the plaster and paint marafet, and revealed wire instead of reinforcement, a weak cement-sand mixture instead of high grade concrete, rusty ugly growths where there should be an even welded seam."(taken from here)
By the way, a similar situation took place in China after the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008, when many schools formed together with children, like houses of cards, due to the extremely poor quality of construction and the total theft of building materials. The Chinese even have a special term - "Tofu schools", that is, schools built instead of tofu concrete.
For attempts to publicize the true number of victims and the reasons for the destruction, carefully concealed by the authorities, the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei was anathematized, summed up on the necessary articles and almost rotted away in prison (but he still has everything to come).
Consequences of the Spitak earthquake
Initially, the government set a period of 2 years for the restoration of the affected areas, however, soon after that the Soviet Union collapsed, in connection with which the term was somewhat postponed ... Actually, as I said, the consequences of the 1988 earthquake have not been eliminated so far, although it has already passed more than 20 years.
Some elements of destruction, such as the fallen church domes, were deliberately left as a monument, but, for the most part, all this is a little covered by the dust of the past years and in some places patched up the devastation of those times.
Old house (crack, probably from the time of the earthquake)
Walking along the streets of Gyumri, you constantly come across cracked walls, remains of houses, half-blind empty windows. And everywhere, including the very center. There is also such an interesting element of the urban landscape: temporary huts.
In many places there are still the same trailers, in which people who lost their homes were temporarily housed in 1988. But, as you know, there is nothing more permanent than something temporary.
The trailers were insulated, additional rooms were added to them, from which in some places whole houses grew. And the trailers themselves remained. As senses, outbuildings, storage rooms and, of course, as a reminder.
However, I will not be at all surprised if I find out that there are still citizens who still live in them, just as they did 20 years ago.
In the center of Gyumri, opposite the temple almost rebuilt after the earthquake, there is a memorial square with a fountain.
Monument to the victims of the earthquake in Gyumri
Opposite the temple stands a monument to the Innocent Victims, Merciful Hearts, depicting a pile of people and concrete blocks.
Monument "Innocent victims, merciful hearts", Gyumri, Armenia And a few more photos of the monument with detail:
The inscription on the stone slab next to it in Russian and Armenian reads:
“At 11:41 on December 7, on a foggy and gloomy December day in 1988, the mountains shook and the earth shook with tremendous force.
Cities, villages, schools, kindergartens and industrial enterprises were instantly destroyed. More than a million people were left homeless.
In this tragic hour, 25 thousand people died, 140 thousand became disabled, 16 thousand were recovered from the rubble.
And they were looking for their loved ones alive among those buried under the ruins.
And the children of their parents called, and the parents - their children.
And there were thousands with merciful hearts with them in this grief.
And all the republics of the USSR and many countries of the world extended a helping hand to the Armenian people.
The people's grief over the innocent victims of the Spitak earthquake is deep.
May God rest their souls.
Eternal memory to them! "
I don’t know how anyone, but personally I was very touched by this monument.
On the opposite side of the square there is a memorial sign.
Next to the restored temple is a poster depicting what happened and what happened after the earthquake.
Well, that is, perhaps, all that concerns the Spitak earthquake. To everyone who has read this article, I suggest honoring the memory of the victims with a minute of silence, during which they reflect on the fact that most of our problems, in fact, are not worth a damn.
On Wednesday, December 7, 1988 at 11:41 local time in the territory of northern Armenia, while the republics within the Soviet Union, there was a strong earthquake, known throughout the world as Spitak. The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.8 on the scale of the magnitude of surface waves, and the intensity of the earthquake is characterized by X on the Medvedev-Karnik scale. The area where the earthquake occurred is considered sufficiently vulnerable to large and destructive earthquakes due to its location in a huge seismic belt stretching from the Alps to the Himalayas. Seismic activity in this belt is associated with the interaction of tectonic plates; the thrust to the north of Spitak was the direct source of the earthquake.
According to official data, 19 thousand people became disabled, at least 25 thousand people died (but there is information about the number of victims in 150 thousand), more than 500 thousand people were left homeless.
Seismologists carefully studied the effects of the earthquake in Armenia, including the main shock and a number of aftershocks, and were at the crash site until the end of 1988. The experts carefully checked the construction conditions of buildings in the region and concluded that the buildings were not suitable for seismically hazardous areas. Most of Spitak's buildings were built in the 60-80s of the XX century. The cities of Spitak, Leninakan (now Gyumri) and Kirovokan (now Vanadzor) suffered greatly, and a large number of human casualties were recorded. A number of small villages located far from large settlements were also destroyed.
Despite the Cold War times, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev formally appealed to the US government with a request for humanitarian aid a few days after the earthquake, and this happened for the first time since the end of World War II. One hundred and thirteen countries sent the necessary amount of humanitarian aid to the USSR in the form of rescue equipment, search teams and medical equipment, but private donations and assistance from non-governmental organizations were also substantial.
During the rescue operation, two planes crashed - the Soviet one, which transported 78 rescuers from Azerbaijan and the Yugoslavian.
In support of the victims of the earthquake, artists from different countries held charity concerts and other events, released records, the proceeds of which were sent to the affected regions of Armenia.
History. Beginning in the late 1980s, the Caucasus experienced a serious political crisis: huge and almost constant political demonstrations began in Yerevan in February 1988. Fifteen months before the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of protesters representing the Karabakh Committee demanded a transition to democracy and the unification of Armenia with the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was ruled by the Azerbaijan SSR but was 80% populated by ethnic Armenians. The protests and opposition movement began in September 1988 with negotiations between the Karabakh Committee and Mikhail Gorbachev and continued throughout 1988 and 1989. Relations between the Soviet authorities and the Armenian society deteriorated in March 1988 and reached a climax by November when a state of emergency was declared and a curfew was imposed. In addition, about 50,000 Armenians fled ethnic violence from Azerbaijan.
Earthquake. The source of the earthquake was located 40 kilometers south of the Main Ridge of the Caucasus, a mountain range that lies on the convergent border between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. This mountain range is located in a seismic belt stretching from the Alps in Southern Europe to the Himalayas in Asia. Seismicity in this belt is manifested by strong earthquakes in the area from the Aegean Sea through Turkey and Iran to Afghanistan. Although seismic events in Armenia are not very frequent, as in other segments of the belt, the rapid deformation of rocks here is associated with the activity of faults and volcanic activity. Mount Ararat, with a height of 5137 meters, is an extinct volcano, located 100 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake in Turkey.
The earthquake occurred along the well-known 60 km long thrust zone, which is parallel to the Caucasus Range and has a direction to the north-north-east. University of Berkeley seismologist Bruce Bolt investigated this thrust in 1992 and found that vertical mixing is 1 meter along most of the zone, and 1.6 meters in the southwestern part. During the earthquake, the northeastern part of Spitak moved and ran into the southeastern part.
Modeling established that the fault originated at a depth of about 5 kilometers with its epicenter in the Alavar zone on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus to the north of Mount Aragats. The main shock provoked a rupture of the surface and spread westward with a separate slip that occurred south of the epicenter. In total, five separate earthquakes occurred in the first 11 seconds after the strongest shock, the strongest of which had a magnitude of 5.8 and occurred four and a half minutes after the main shock.
Intensity. The strongest tremors were felt in the Spitak area. Perceptible tremors were also recorded in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran. The intensity of the earthquake in Spitak was X points on the Medvedev-Karnik scale, in Leninakan, Kirovakan and Stepanavan it was IX points. The intensity was VII points in Tabakskuri and Borjomi, VI points in Bogdanovka, Tbilisi and Yerevan, V points in Gori, IV points in Makhachkala and Grozny, and III points in Sheki and Shemakha.
Damage. Some of the strongest shocks occurred in industrial areas with developed chemical and food industries, power plants and substations. The Metsamor (Armenian) nuclear power plant, located about 75 kilometers from the epicenter, experienced only minor shocks and no damage occurred, but was eventually closed six years later due to the danger of earthquakes. It was reopened in 1995 despite criticism of the nuclear power plant design and political instability in the Caucasus. At the time, International Atomic Energy Agency Assistant Director General Morris Rosen said: "You shouldn't have built a plant in this area based on what is now known."
Many buildings could not withstand the earthquake and it was impossible to survive in the ruins, and the lack of effective medical care and poor planning contributed to the catastrophic consequences of the earthquake. The buildings that were not destroyed had good masonry and were constructed in such a way that the building could withstand seismic waves.
Most of the bridges, tunnels and other public infrastructure weathered the earthquake, which is not the case for local hospitals, most of which were destroyed and two-thirds of doctors died, equipment was destroyed and medical care was lacking in almost everything.
The Soviet media and officials soon began to discuss the reasons that led to the destruction of such a huge number of buildings. Mikhail Gorbachev, speaking to television after returning from New York a few weeks after the earthquake, said that the individual blocks from which the buildings were built contained too much sand and too little concrete, and suggested that the concrete had been stolen. Leonid Bibin, deputy chairman of the State Construction Committee, said that many new houses had been destroyed and that he was starting an investigation into this and that several criminal cases would be opened. The official organ of the CPSU, the Pravda newspaper, wrote that poor construction, like other negative phenomena in the USSR, may be associated with the "era of stagnation."
A team of US earthquake experts spent the period from December 1988 to January 1989 in Armenia. This group, which includes construction safety experts, agreed that deficiencies in construction were the main cause of damage during the moderate earthquake, although it is clear that an overly cold winter increased the number of casualties. Experts who assessed the damage to buildings and rescuers dismantling destroyed buildings and pulling people out of the rubble also noted serious shortcomings in construction. The USSR changed the design of buildings to tie construction to seismic risk, but also recognized that many buildings were not adapted to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude of about 7. One Soviet specialist explained that construction in Armenia is based on the intensity of on the Medvedev-Karnik scale from 7 to 8, but due to the proximity of the outbreak to settlements and its shallow depth, it was 9-10 points.
Three cities close to the epicenter had different levels of damage. The cities of Leninakan and Kirovakan are located approximately at the same distance from the epicenter, but in Leninakan the damage was much greater. This can be explained by the 300-400 m thick sedimentary rocks located under the city. A comparative analysis of the damage to these cities showed that 62% of buildings were destroyed in Leninakan, 23% in Kirovokan. In Spitak, by the way, almost 100% of houses were destroyed.
At the end of December, when the last living person was removed from the rubble, the rescue operation was curtailed and the cleaning of cities from the remains of destroyed buildings began. After 35 days, six more people were unexpectedly found alive, who were in the basement of a nine-story building when the tremors began. For more than a month, with only minor injuries, they ate fruits, pickles and compotes, survived in the ruins, unable to come to the surface.
Study of seismic processes. The region where Armenia is located is of interest to seismologists and geologists because of the proximity to the collision boundary, where strong earthquakes can occur and because of private aftershocks after earthquakes, and the relatively little knowledge of the faults. Twelve days after the main shock, Soviet and French seismologists installed a temporary seismic network in the epicentral area to record aftershocks. The initial part of the work included almost a week of tuning and optimization of seismographs, two full weeks of continuous operation of 26 seismographs over an area of more than 1,500 square kilometers. The final stage lasted for seven weeks (until the end of February 1989), when monitoring continued on 20 seismographs.
Liquefaction of soils... The earthquake significantly damaged buildings and other structures, as well as roads and railways.
Many earthquake stories show that there is liquefaction of sandy soils, but very rarely this happens in stone or gravel. In some situations, sand with stones can give the same effect as clean sand. The first well-documented case of liquefaction in gravelly sands was reported during the 1983 Bora Peak earthquake in the United States. Several studies have been carried out and it has been shown that liquefaction in such cases is present in soils with low permeability, since it interferes with the pressure drop in pore waters.
Three points between Spitak and the village of Nalband, which were several kilometers from the epicenter, were examined for liquefaction. The first point was on the road linking the hardest hit towns and adjacent to a tributary of the Pambak River, where the groundwater was close to the surface of the earth. The embankment of the road was disturbed and although the highway was rebuilt very quickly, as a result of the damage, it was impossible to transport goods and people along the road for several days. Numerous sand emissions were noted in the area northwest of Spitak including 15 meters from the destroyed road.
The second point was located close to the epicenter, also next to the Pambak River and had similar soils, but the soils did not experience liquefaction, although there were the same accelerations as in the area of the destroyed road.
Nuclear explosion. Some believed that the earthquake was the result of an underground nuclear explosion.
Rescue work. M.S. Gorbachev ordered the allocation of 5 billion rubles to start the restoration work, saying that the cost of restoration would exceed the cost of cleaning up after the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Foreign aid after the earthquake was received for the first time since the end of World War II. This aid was a by-product of the disaster and had a positive impact on the development of Soviet-American relations. The cost of recovery will be a major obstacle to Gorbachev's plan to restructure the Soviet economy. Another negative effect of the disaster was that the Armenians were finally disappointed in Gorbachev because of the policy towards Karabakh.
The world responded quickly to the disasters in Leninakan and Spitak, with most of the aid coming from Europe in the form of cargo planes laden with medical supplies, emergency equipment and trained personnel to assist in recovery. The fittings were delivered from Latin America and the Far East. At the time of the earthquake, Gorbachev was in the United States, and as soon as it became known about the scale of the disaster, he quickly left for the USSR to officially ask the United States for help from Moscow. The United States reacted immediately and sent doctors, medical equipment and rescue teams, and on the very first weekend the first American plane arrived in Yerevan.
French rescuers arrived in Armenia late in the evening of December 9 and replaced the exhausted Armenian workers, who then returned to Yerevan. Japan sent financial aid in the amount of $ 9 million, Italy supplied prefabricated houses for the victims, Germany offered to send more than a dozen heavy cranes.
Private donations have also been significant.
American businessman and philanthropist Armand Hammer, known in the Soviet Union for financial aid and humanitarian ties, flew to Armenia on his own Boeing-727 plane with a cargo of medicines provided by the American Red Cross.
Hammer, who worked for an oil corporation for decades, had a conversation with M.S. Gorbachev to bring about $ 1 million to the aid fund in Armenia. Half of these funds were from the Californian organization World Vision International, and the other half was a personal donation from Hammer. The head of World Vision and a doctor who worked on the 1985 earthquake in Mexico also flew to Armenia.
Bureaucratic obstacles clearly hampered the provision of rescue operations. The newspaper Pravda stated that the lack of taps meant the loss of precious seconds and hours to save people. It was also indicated that there were not enough people for the search teams, although there were more than enough advisers. Health Minister Yevgeny Chazov called for the creation of a government body to assist in the elimination of the consequences of natural disasters. Baxter International (an American health care company headquartered in Dilfield, Illinois) designed and delivered to Armenia a flying medical laboratory with a set of 20 dialysis machines to be used to treat patients with long-term compression syndrome, but visa delays resulted in to the fact that they could not start treatment for another four days. Most of the hospitals are destroyed and their staff had no experience in caring for such patients. In the USSR, in general, few places dealt with such injuries, so there were great difficulties in the treatment of the syndrome. Rapid initiation of treatment is required to prevent death or severe kidney damage, but the victims did not receive adequate treatment and dialysis and as a result most of them died before the arrival of the first foreign dialysis machines.
Effects. Musician Pierre Schaeffer worked in the French rescue team in Leninakan until all foreign workers were asked to leave the ruins, as there could be no survivors underneath and they began to compare the ruins to the ground.
The total number of volunteers in Leninakan was 2000 people; rescue teams flew in from Austria, Canada, Switzerland, the USA and Yugoslavia.
However, during the rescue operation there were real tragedies - seventy-eight people died when a Soviet Il-76 plane carrying rescuers crashed on its way to the Leninakan airport. In the fog near the airport, the helicopter taking off from the GDP collided with the aircraft approaching for landing. Leninakan airport was very small to receive a large number of flights. The airport in the first days after the earthquake took up to 180 flights a day, which was a lot for an airport of this class. Therefore, the Yerevan airport, where there was no personnel capable of managing large traffic flows, became an additional airfield for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The second plane crash occurred the next day in Yerevan, when a Yugoslav transport plane carrying humanitarian supplies crashed at the airport. All seven crew members were killed. The crash occurred due to a misunderstanding between the pilots and dispatchers of the Yerevan airport in determining the flight altitude.
A group of French musicians with composer and singer Charles Aznavour, who has Armenian roots, released in 1989 the song "For you, Armenia". Aznavour, together with composer Georg Garvarents, also of Armenian descent, formed a foundation called "Aznavour for Armenia" and with the help of music called on the world to help Armenia. It took six weeks to record the disc and the funds from two million copies sold were enough to build 47 schools and three orphanages in the affected areas. In Great Britain, the organization "Rock helps Armenia" was created to raise money to help those who suffered from the earthquake. In Washington, DC, in 1990, a monument to the "Armenian earthquake" was erected as a token of the gratitude of the Armenian people for their help in eliminating the consequences of the disaster.
Recovery. In February 1989, one hundred builders were sent to Leninakan to assemble temporary housing for the local population; by early March, construction work was to be completed. It was also planned to restore schools and factories. Building codes were updated to prohibit the construction of housing above four stories in the area, and new buildings were to be located away from areas with the highest seismic hazard. There was a proposal to move the city several kilometers to the southwest.
By July 1989, about $ 500 million had been sent in humanitarian aid from 113 countries around the world. Most of these funds went towards initial relief work and the construction of temporary shelters. Yuri Mkhitaryan, an official representative of the State Construction Committee, reported that 342 villages were affected by the earthquake, and 58 were completely destroyed, and 130 factories were destroyed and 170 thousand people were left without work. Officials admitted that the restoration work could take up to five years or more, although M.S. Gorbachev gave a different figure (two years).
In Leninakan, there was a need to build 18 hospitals, 12 of which could be financed with the help of the republics of the USSR, but foreign assistance will be needed to build six health facilities.
Earlier earthquakes. On October 20, 1827, in the Spitak region, there was already a strong earthquake with an intensity of VIII points, the epicenter of which was located 50 kilometers southeast of Spitak, and the earthquake in the Leninakan region on October 22, 1926 had an intensity of VII points.
In 893, in the same region of Armenia, an earthquake claimed 20 thousand lives, but the records about it were not accurate, so the location of the epicenter could not be determined. In 1667, the number of victims of the earthquake was 60 thousand people. Other devastating earthquakes occurred in the region in 1894, 1899, 1914 and 1920.
Today. The region where Gyumri (formerly Leninakan) is located is the poorest in Armenia, unemployment is at least 11% of the working-age population. The dilapidated buildings still remain in the city, although in 1988 they talked about a two-year restoration period. For which, for sure, you need to "thank" those gentlemen who destroyed the Soviet Union, since in this case, most likely, it would have been possible to restore everything at least in three times. Until 1994, only 5,628 apartments were built using government subsidies, and in addition, another 20,770 apartments were built with private funds.
In 2009 alone, the Armenian government launched a new program with the allocation of almost $ 200 million for construction in the area.
Many of those affected by the 1988 earthquake still do not have their own homes and live in hostels.
One of the residents of Gyumri, still a young girl during the earthquake, and today a 43-year-old woman with three children, still lives in a temporary house, asks: “Where is it…. is this a solution? " and thinks that she will have to wait until her death for the housing promised back in 1988.
Another slum dweller, a 60-year-old woman, says that she was promised a permanent place to live long ago, and after 25 years she was not given an apartment. “We're already losing hope,” she says.
Indeed, it was scary. I remember the shock the inhabitants of the Soviet Union experienced when they learned about the earthquake in Armenia. At that time, this part of Armenia was the richest of the entire territory of the republic, but the earthquake that occurred in the country, which was already falling apart, turned the former flourishing region into a real hell, and then into the most backward region of independent Armenia.
But even more terrible was what happened in 1995 in Neftegorsk. After all, Armenia was helped by the whole huge Union and the whole world (especially since ethnic Armenians from all over the world responded to the misfortune of the people). And Neftegorsk was left alone with the disaster.
More than twenty-six ago (December 7, 1988), Armenia was shocked by the strongest earthquake in the city of Spitak, which was completely destroyed in half an hour, and with it 58 surrounding villages. The settlements of Gyumri, Vanadzor, Stepanavan were affected. Minor destructions affected 20 cities and over 200 villages located at some distance from the epicenter.
The strength of the earthquake
In the same place, earthquakes have occurred earlier - in 1679, 1840 and 1931, but they did not reach even 4 points. And in 1988, in the summer, seismographs recorded fluctuations in the area of Spitak and its environs at 3.5 points on the Richter scale.
The very same earthquake in Spitak, which occurred on December 7, had a force of 10 points at the epicenter (the highest mark is 12 points). Most of the republic was subject to shocks with a power of up to 6 points. The echoes of tremors were felt in Yerevan and Tbilisi.
Experts who have estimated the scale of the catastrophe report that the amount of energy released from the earth's crust is equal to ten atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. It is noteworthy that the blast wave that bypassed the Earth was recorded on several continents. Data in the report "Earthquake. Spitak, 1988" it is reported that the total rupture of the surface was equal to 37 kilometers, and its displacement amplitudes were almost 170 cm. The rupture occurred at the site of the split of tectonic plates, which were not classified as seismically dangerous at that time.
The scale of the disaster
What are the official data characterizing this earthquake? Spitak-1988 is almost 30 thousand dead and more than 140 thousand disabled people. The damage to industry and infrastructure is also disappointing. Among them there are 600 km of highways, 230 industrial enterprises, 410 medical institutions. Work was stopped
The earthquake in Spitak caused enormous damage. The world's financiers have estimated it at almost $ 15 billion, and the number of victims has exceeded all the world's average figures for those affected by natural disasters. At that time, the Armenian authorities were not able to independently eliminate the consequences of the tragedy, and all the republics of the USSR and many foreign states immediately joined the work.
Elimination of consequences: friendship of peoples and political motives
On December 7, surgeons who could work in military field conditions and rescuers from Russia flew to the crash site. In addition to them, doctors from the USA, Great Britain, Switzerland and France worked at the crash site. Blood donors and medicines were supplied by China, Japan and Italy, came from more than 100 countries.
On December 10, the head of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, flew to the site of the tragedy (now it was ruins instead of a prosperous city). For the sake of helping people and overseeing the rescue process, he interrupted his visit to the United States.
Two days before Gorbachev's arrival, humanitarian aid arrived from Sochi. The helicopter carried everything necessary to save the lives of the victims and ... coffins. The latter were not enough.
The stadiums of Spitak schools became heliports, hospitals, evacuation points and morgues at the same time.
Causes of the tragedy and exit routes
Experts say that the reasons that caused large-scale destruction as a result of such a phenomenon as the earthquake in Spitak are the untimely and incomplete assessment of seismic fluctuations in the region, shortcomings in the preparation of regulatory documents and poor quality of construction work and medical services.
It is noteworthy that the Union threw all its forces, money and labor, to help those who suffered from the disaster in Spitak: more than 45 thousand volunteers came from the republics alone. Tens of thousands of parcels from all over the Soviet Union arrived in the city and surrounding settlements as humanitarian aid.
But even more interesting is the fact that in 1987-1988 Azerbaijanis, Russians and Muslims were expelled from the Armenian lands literally at gunpoint. Their heads were cut off, they were crushed by cars, beaten to death and walled up in chimneys, sparing neither women nor children. In the book of the writer Sanubar Sarally “The Stolen History. Genocide ”provides stories of eyewitnesses of those events. The writer says that the Armenians themselves call the tragedy in Spitak God's punishment for their misdeeds.
Residents of Azerbaijan also participated in the elimination of the consequences of the disaster, supplying gasoline, equipment and medicines to Spitak and the surrounding cities. However, Armenia refused their help.
Spitak, the earthquake in which became an indicator of international relations of that time, in fact confirmed the fraternal USSR.
A look after 1988
The earthquake in Spitak gave the first impetus to the creation of an organization for the prediction, prevention and elimination of natural origin. So, twelve months later, in 1989, it was officially announced that the work of the State Commission for Emergency Situations, known since 1991 as the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, was officially announced.
Spitak after the earthquake is a controversial and at the same time painful phenomenon for the country. Almost 27 years have passed since the tragedy, but even decades later, Armenia is still recovering. In 2005, there were almost 9 thousand families who lived in barracks without amenities.
In memory of the victims
Date 7 December - Day of Mourning for the victims of the disaster, announced by the government. It's a rainy day for Armenia. In December 1989, the Union Mint issued a three-ruble coin in memory of the Spitak earthquake. 20 years later, in 2008, a public monument was opened in the small town of Gyumri. It was named "Innocent Victims, Merciful Hearts" and was dedicated to all the victims who suffered in Spitak on 07.12.1988.
