ARMENIA MOURNS IRAN CRASH VICTIMS
By Avet Demourian
Associated Press Worldstream
July 16, 2009 Thursday 12:25 PM GMT
Flags flew at half-staff throughout Armenia and the country’s radio and
TV stations refrained from showing entertainment programs Thursday on
a day of mourning for victims of a plane crash in Iran, while tearful
relatives prepared to travel to the disaster site.
The Caspian Airlines Tu-154 was bound for the Armenian capital Yerevan
when it crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday.
Five Armenian citizens were among the 168 people killed and many of the
other victims were members of Iran’s large ethnic Armenian community.
Iran’s national airline sent a Boeing 747 to Yerevan on Thursday to
help take victims’ relatives to Tehran.
Khristofor Sogomonian, whose father was among those killed, told The
Associated Press at Yerevan’s airport that "we’re flying with other
relatives to try to find anything and to commit his body to the soil."
Caspian Airlines’ representative in Armenia, Arlen Davudian, said
victims’ relatives would be provided hotel rooms and transportation
to the crash site.
He also said that victims’ relatives would be paid compensation of
at least 32,000 euros.
At the capital’s Zvartnots international airport, first-aid doctors
were on hand to give aid to grieving relatives as they prepared to
fly to Iran.
Many of them said they had been whipsawed between hope and resignation.
"I had hoped that she was alive, but now all doubts have fallen away,"
said Diana Sarkisian, an Iranian national whose cousin was aboard the
plane as the first leg of a trip to her husband in the United States.
Suren Barsegian, an aviation technician, said his brother Grigor was
a crew member on the doomed flight.
"As a man working in the aviation industry, I understand that there’s
no chance he survived. Everybody saw the results of the catastrophe,"
he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
