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`MAN COULD NOT TOLERATE THE GRIEF BUT WE COULD’
[04:23 pm] 05 December, 2008

`Residents of the `zone of calamity’ are filled with anguish twenty
years after the devastating earthquake of 1988,’ says Gyumri citizen
Anik.

At 10:45, in 1988, Anik’s native town, Gyumri, was leveled to the
ground in a trice.

People are unemployed today. Most of local citizens have left abroad
in search of better living conditions. Many cannot even return to
their birthplace as they have no finances.’

Julietta Manukyan was not in Gyumri when the quake struck Gyumri. `I
went to Sovetashen’s prison to visit my husband leaving my children
with my mother-in-law. I didn’t witness the disaster but I heard a lot
about it. On the town we witnessed a terrifying scene. People were all
in mud, sitting beside fires with horror in their eyes. Some were
yelling, others weeping. One could go mad at the sight of the
scene. Man could not overcome the grief but Gyumri citizens could,’
recalled Mrs. Julietta.

`I came to myself after finding my children safe and sound at my
brother’s place,’ she continued.

A few years later Mrs. Julietta was forced to sell her rundown house
and settle in a `hut’ with her nine-member family. Today the family
dreams of having a flat.

We don’t have any chances to get one as I sold my own house after the
earthquake. But I had to sell it as it was safer to live in a hut than
in a dilapidated house. We had no money to repair the building. On the
other hand, my son was recruited to army. He fell ill and we faced
some financial problems,’ she said.

`We live in abject conditions today. One of my sons got married and
departed for Russia. My younger son also got married. Today his wife
lives at her parents’ house with my two grandchildren as there is no
room in the hut,’ said Mrs. Julietta restraining her tears.