Benevolence is the virtue of the devotees of God for whom the Lord’s Commandment “Love one another” has become the touchstone in their lives and activities. The editorial office of Hayern Aysor often hosts benefactors who believe their mission in life on Earth is to help and support people and extend a helping hand to those in trouble. Among them are Diaspora Armenian doctors, who invest their professional skills and potential, personal resources and a large part of their lives to provide their compatriots with treatment, as well as perform surgeries and help them be healthy. They are the blessed! This time my interlocutor is Syrian-Armenian doctor/cardiologist Krikor Tarakchian, who has settled in Yerevan.

“I settled in Armenia last September. In 1980, I graduated from Yerevan State Medical Institute, returned to Syria and opened my own clinic. During those years, my clinic was part of the Gulbenkian Hospital. I haven’t been working for the government since I moved to Armenia. The government isn’t hiring me, saying I am old. I am not that old, have merit and 34 years of experience in the field.  In any case, I am currently doing charity work at the Vahe Karapetian Clinic of Kanakar where Syrian-Armenians receive medical treatment free-of-charge. The doctors are also Syrian-Armenians. After moving to Armenia, Syrian-Armenians who have chronic diseases lacked and still lack the drugs that had been prescribed to them in Syria, and so we provide them with the drugs that replace the former ones. I prepare the list and forward it to the relevant supporting organization, which provides the drugs to the patients for free. The Vahe Karapetian Clinic has several experts, including a cardiologist (me), a dermatologist, a pediatrician and a general therapist. The clinic will soon be officially recognized as a polyclinic and will have new experts, a psychologist, a neurologist, a traumatologist and more. We have received 12-13 types of medicine from the United States, and I distribute the drugs to patients according to the list. Most of the drugs are for daily use. We receive whatever we ask for. If it were up to me, I would prefer to receive the drugs specified on the list.

We provide free services across Armenia with founding president of the Armenian Christian Medical Association (ACMA) (a licensed organization), author of several books, Syrian-Armenian doctor Johnny Hatdat. Dr. Johnny visits Armenia twice a year and performs nearly 250 free surgeries (mainly surgeries for hernia, hemorrhoids, goiter, gallbladder, cancer). Dr. Johnny has been performing these surgeries as charity in Armenia for about a decade. Nobody invites him. It is his initiative. During the first days following the establishment of the organization, there were two doctors. Today, there are quite a lot of new doctors and nurses. Before surgery, I perform preparatory works with the help of a nurse who is fluent in Russian. I receive patients, examine their health problems, organize the analyses (general blood analysis, blood pressure, functioning of the heart), analyze the results and set aside the names of patients who need to undergo surgery and submit the list to Dr. Johnny. Recently, we visited Hrazdan, Vanadzor and Gyumri. Over the past three weeks, we have performed nearly 50 surgeries in Gyumri. We also visited the Mrgashat village of Armavir Province and enlisted 10 patients. Later, we let for the city of Ararat where the doctor selected 10 people from the list of 70-80 patients. After that, we visited Shushi (in Artsakh) where we performed 44 surgeries. We came to Yerevan where we had a list of 70-80 patients. This week, Dr. Johnny will end the surgeries and will leave for Syria. He will be back in Armenia in September with the same mission. He is an incredibly kind, strong and faithful Armenian and a right Christian. Currently, the doctor performs surgeries on the floor of the Surp Grigor Lusavorich Hospital of the Nork Mass allocated for the ACMA. Dr. Johnny’s organization also has a mobile clinic that is currently in the Mrgashat village of Armavir Province. We reach an agreement with the field representatives of the regional governors’ offices, travel to different villages and provinces with 14-15 doctors and nurses, conduct checkups and form lists of people who need to undergo surgeries. This was the scope and goals of our activities in Armenia. If God willing, we will continue our mission as long as there are needy patients in Armenia who can’t afford to undergo surgeries. I would like to remind that the Vahe Karapetian Clinic will officially open its doors in September. I think we will meet again.”

What pleasantly surprised me during the interview was how modest Syrian-Armenian doctor/cardiologist Krikor Tarakchian was and how devoted he was to the very important and tremendous job that he does as charity. He was talking about it briefly and was mainly emphasizing the charities of his partner, Dr. Johnny, a wonderful person and doctor whom I had a chance to meet after my interview with Dr. Tarakchian.

Karine Avagyan