Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 EarthquakeWayne State University Press, 1995 - 162 pages "On December 7, 1988, the northwest region of Soviet Armenia, including Leninakan, the republic's second largest city, was devastated by an earthquake which left tens of thousands dead and forced the central government, for the first time in Soviet history, to call for international assistance." "Armenia in Crisis documents the tragic Armenian earthquake and the surrounding political controversies that rocked the Soviet Union and contributed to its collapse. In sparse and gripping prose, Pierre Verluise, a French journalist and Soviet specialist, uses the accounts of survivors and relief workers to tell the story of this catastrophe in its human and political dimensions. Relying on personal interviews and press reports, he recounts the destruction and despair, the emotional reactions of survivors and relief workers, the political struggles between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Armenians, and the shortcomings in Soviet construction methods and disaster preparedness." "The new epilogue by translator Levon Chorbajian completes Verluise's story of human loss and high political drama, with updates of Armenia's independence, the Soviet Union's demise, and the still uncompleted task of earthquake reconstruction."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Preface Pierre Verluise | 8 |
The Earthquake and Initial Relief Efforts | 15 |
Foreign Relief Aid Arrives | 35 |
PART II | 47 |
The Earthquake in Its Historical Context | 81 |
The Political Earthquake | 99 |
Conclusion | 109 |
Program of the Karabagh Committee | 133 |
Chronology | 141 |
Selected Bibliography 149 | 151 |
Common terms and phrases
11 December 9 December Anahide areas Arme Armenian genocide Armenian National Movement Armenians and Azerbaijanis army arrest arrived Artsakh Baku blockade buildings catastrophe central government collapsed Committee members Communist Party conflict coordinator dead demands democratic dialysis diaspora diasporan Armenian disaster dispensary Doctors without Borders emergency ethnic February foreign relief workers France GÉRARD CHALIAND Ghazarian Gorbachev independence Iran issues Karabagh Armenians Karabagh Committee Karabagh Movement large number Leninakan living major March massacres menian ment military minority Monde months Moscow Mountainous Karabagh Nakhichevan nian official organization Ottoman participate percent Petrossian physicians Pierre Verluise political population problems protests Public Safety region relief efforts Republic of Armenia rescue workers reunification roubles rubble ruins Russian solidarity Soviet Armenia Soviet authorities Soviet Union Sovietology Spitak Stepanagert Stepanavan Sumgait Supreme Soviet survival survivors territory tion tional took Turkey Turkish United victims villages witness Yerevan State University zone