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Funds established for Armenian reliefBy PHYLLIS CODLINGFor Armenians around the world, this holiday season is a tim® of sadness — a time for mourning the deaths of nearly 100,000 earthquake victims in southern Soviet Armenia.Of the 300 Armenian'American families living in Fairfield County, some 30 live in Westport and Weston. All are getting together to try and help not just friend^ and relatives, but all who are suffering there.On Sunday evening, Matthew and Salpi Tbkatlian and Peter and Jane Nahabedian were at the Tbkatlian’s North Avenue home discussing how they could help the victims.Mr. Nahabedian, who is a distributor for Rand McNally, has second and third cousins in Armenia, however, he has not kept in close contact with them lately and because communications between the United States and Armenia are presently so poor, he does not know if they were in thearea struck by the earthquake.“We were sitting here trying to figure out how to go about asking for donations, or going into the schools for donations to this cause,” said Mr. Tbkatlian. a vice president of finance for a Greenwich advertising agency“We don’t have any direct relatives, but Armenians are avery ethnic people. We feel as if it were our own brothers and sisters and children that have perished,” he said. “It’s hard to find words [to describe the loss].”West porter Margaret Manugian,a retired Norwalk social worker, is also Armenian. She said she feels it is important for the children of Westport and Weston to get involved with helping the Armenian children.“There are going to have been thousands and thousands of children who have perished,”she said, her voice breaking “I want the kids in Westport to feel that they were their friends ... I want them to feel that they were their classmates.”Mrs. Manugian said that she has relatives in the capital city of Yerevan, but none in the area of the earthquake.“But they are all our relatives,” she said. “We feel that way because we are not such a big nation.”Hardest struck by the earthquake were Leninakan, Spitak and Girvogan in the southern part of Armenia near the Turkish border.Mr Tbkatlian said Armenians compare the huge loss of life suffered in the earthquake to that suffered when Armenians were massacred by the Turks between1915-1918.Mrs. Tbkatlian, a former Westport schoolteacher, said that the Armenians claim that more than 1.5 million of their people were killed. The Tbrks, however, deny that the genocide ever took place, and claim that the lives were lostbecause of an Armenian uprising. The event was ignored because of the politics at the time, she said, and because so many countries were involved in World War I.“The one thing [about theearthquake] that offers us some consolation is that the world knowsand is reaching out to help,” she said.In the United States, Armenian relief funds are being established at a quick pace and already many people in Fairfield County have donated thousandsof dollars to the cause.“People are calling from all over to give help and condolences, said the Rev. Untzag Nalbandian, pastor of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the' Holy Ascension inTrumbull,the only Armenian church in Fairfield County.As of Sunday, he said, the church had already collected about $10,000. That money will be sent on to the diocese in New York City and will then be convertedinto whatever is needed — be itclothing, blankets or medical supplies.Lucille Sahagian of Fairfield, a member of Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian’s Ladies Prelacy Guildcontinued on page 38MENSSWEATER VOriginal Retail $:MENSINDIA MADI
Newspaper Details
Norwalk News Trader
Norwalk, Connecticut, US
Thu, Dec 15, 1988
Page 35
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