Exactly 28 years have passed since the devastating 1988 Spitak Earthquake, which took place on 7 December at 11:41 and took the lives of 25,000 people.

During and after the difficult days of the catastrophe, the 700-member youth organization of the Lenin Communist Youth Union of Armenia, which was under the leadership of current RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, did everything possible to help the people and mitigate their sorrow.

In his article entitled “Spitak: Our Common Pain” from his book “All Paths Cross Within a Person”, writer, publicist, public and political figure Zory Balayan has touched upon the efforts that the Communist Youth Union made during those days. Hayern Aysor presents an excerpt from the article.

“The wounded were evacuated from the devastated cities and villages during the very first days following the earthquake. They were moved to Yerevan, Tbilisi, and the next day-to Moscow. Since the wounded persons’ friends and relatives had no information about their whereabouts, they would often start searching for them. Thousands of people were being taken out of the country, and there was no time for registration during the panic and commotion.

They brought a wounded person who was in a state of shock. He was lying down in a state of unconsciousness. There were thousands of people like him. On the first day, the Ministry of Healthcare made beds for 10,000 people. After that, wounded adults and children were laid in those beds.

In such “blind” conditions, the Communist Youth Union shone. In that period, it truly lived up to its calling. The Central Committee of the Lenin Communist Youth Union of the Republic established a headquarters that provided various services to those who had been evacuated from the disaster zone and to those whose relatives were searching. The headquarters had programmers and took advantage of the opportunities that mass media outlets had to offer.

In just one week, the Central Committee found and transferred nearly 500 children to parents. Soon after, it created the Search Service that had its newspaper called “Huys” (Hope). The Service was under the direction of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Armenian Lenin Communist Youth Union, a willful and courageous individual by the name of Hranush Hakobyan. On the tenth day, there was already a list of 35 people. In a sense, the Communist Youth Union became an information bureau that provided necessary assistance to the children who had been taken out of the country.

The reason was that, in the beginning, especially in Yerevan, there were concerns about the children who were being moved out of Armenia in large groups. The lack of precise and operative information gave way for a lot of criticism and gossip.”