Relief for dancers’ families
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
July 18 2006
The families of Australian children with an Armenian dance troupe on
tour in the Middle East say they are relieved their loved ones are
among 86 Australians rescued from war-torn Lebanon.
The Sevan Dance Group’s 45 young performers and 36 parents and
supervisors were this morning safe in the Jordan, the Federal
Government said.
The Government had organised three buses to pick up the group and
some others from their Beirut hotel. The convoy headed north along
the Mediterranean coast road early last night (AEST) and crossing the
Syrian border to the capital, Damascus.
Parliamentary secretary for Foreign Affairs Teresa Gambaro said today
the group had now arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman.
Silva Vartabebian, whose 18-year-old daughter is part of the dance
troupe, said she had yet to speak to her daughter, but was relieved.
"Very relieved, very relieved," she said on Channel 7. "It’s a bad
experience, I’m sure it was worse for them. Very anxious waiting at
home. No sleeping, just constantly worrying, talking to parents all
the time, asking if they’d heard anything.
"Nothing crossed our minds that something like this would happen, to
this extent anyway."
She said her daughter originally wasn’t going to go, but a job she
had fell through and there was a last-minute cancellation in the
troupe.
Ms Vartabebian said Australian foreign affairs officials had gone to
the Armenian Cultural Centre to reassure parents and update them on
what was taking place. She said she was not sure when they would be
coming home.
Tatiana Arabian, whose 15-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter were
also on the tour, said it had been a tense wait.
She said she would not relax until she knew her children were to
catch a flight home.
"Since Thursday 2pm it’s been terrible and … now I can finally say
that they are safe, but still I can feel I might even receive a phone
call saying it’s not going as positive as you are think, so fingers
crossed that they will be home as soon as they reach Jordan," she
said on Channel 9.
"Last time I talked to them, they were in Beirut, in the hotel, they
were in a safe place.
"That was two days ago.
"My son was quite all right but my daughter, who is 16, and she was a
bit scared because she could hear the bombs and she said: ‘The
building is shaking, and Mum it’s really scary.
"I said: ‘You have to hang on there until the embassy will try and
get you all out’."
Ms Arabian said she expected her children home tomorrow morning.