PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Chris Zakian
Tel: (212) 686-0710
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
December 6, 2013
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Editors:
Below please find a message from Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), commemorating the 25th
anniversary of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. An Armenian-language version
of this message is attached.
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The Earthquake in Armenia, After 25 Years
A Message from Archbishop Khajag Barsamian
Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
It is truly humbling to realize that a quarter-century has elapsed since the
earthquake struck Armenia on December 7, 1988. It has been 25 years since
large areas of Armenia were destroyed; 25 years since tens of thousands of
our countrymen perished in the blink of an eye; 25 years since the life of
the worldwide Armenian community was transformed, forever.
And it has also been 25 years since we witnessed that beautiful outpouring
of goodwill from the world, directed towards our people in their hour of
profound need.
The repercussions of that time were so great that they can hardly be
enumerated. For the people of Armenia, it was a time of the deepest grief,
when the external signs of death and destruction appeared inescapable.
For Armenians in our Diocese-and around the world-it was a time for decisive
action, which drew us away from our long-held parochial divisions, and
sharply focused our united hearts and minds on the greater cause of our
homeland.
For all of us, it was a time of beginning as much as an ending: a moment to
discover a common purpose, and to embrace anew the faith that had given hope
to the Armenian nation in earlier times of peril-a hope so powerfully
symbolized in those images of our great Catholicos Vasken I consoling the
people amidst the rubble: a father among his beloved children.
In times of such catastrophe, the purposes of almighty God are deeply
mysterious. But with hindsight, we can attest that all of us emerged from
the earthquake and its aftermath changed. Armenia itself, once a Soviet
republic, was reborn in freedom and independence. The bond between homeland
and diaspora was strengthened, and travel to Armenia-once fraught with
difficulty-became common and fluid.
A new generation of Armenians-in our homeland, here in America, and around
the globe-was decisively shaped by both the tragedy of a catastrophe, and
the blessing of so many helping hands in a time of need.
And it is not too much to assert that our own souls were deepened in the
wake of the earthquake. In the 25 years following 1988, the memory of our
sorrow would be re-awakened whenever similar natural disasters struck our
fellow human beings in other corners of the world. A sense of solidarity in
suffering has inspired our people to provide relief and comfort to these
fellow victims of devastation.
These were not new lessons for the Armenia people. Indeed, they are the
lessons our Lord taught us through his holy cross, and his empty tomb; the
lessons we embraced as a nation 17 centuries ago; the lessons we carried
through the valley of the shadow of death in 1915. They are lessons of
suffering and redemption; of the sanctity of life and the power of hope; of
the unpredictability of events, and the constancy of faith.
The earthquake was the way those eternal lessons were asserted in our
generation. It falls to us to transmit those lessons to our children, so
they may draw strength in their own times of affliction.
Most of all, we must not lose heart when we feel, 25 years after such an
event, that some of those lessons have been forgotten. For they are not
lost. The response of our people to the earthquake shows that those lessons
and their associated godly virtues are always waiting to be reborn in us, at
the right moment, according to God’s will.
Surely the Armenian people have been instruments of His will, through our
great afflictions and our great achievements, from the depths of our beings
as individuals and as a nation. On this solemn anniversary, we pray that God
will remember the precious souls He drew to His kingdom 25 years ago, and
that He will bless the land and the people who emerged from, and were
changed by, that time of trial.
May His guiding hand be upon our people now and forever. Amen.
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