YEREVAN (Novosti-Armenia), March 1—The Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN, Ambassador Karen Nazarian, gave John Holmes, the Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency, a bank notification for the allocation of the Armenian state budget aid, amounting to $100,000 to the earthquake victims in Haiti, revealed the press service of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti occurred on January 12. As a result of the disaster, hundreds of thousands of people remained under the rubble. The capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince has been completely destroyed. According to the latest facts, the number of victims of the earthquake was over 200,000.

Nazaryan informed that under the decision of the Armenian government, with the help of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the allocated sum aims to provide the victims in Haiti with temporary shelters, non-food items, food and medicines.

He noted that despite the current financial and economic hardship, the Armenian government considered it important to provide assistance to the earthquake victims in Haiti, given the experience of the tragic 1988 earthquake in Armenia and the need for international assistance in such situations.

The Spitak eartquake took place on December 7, 1988. The earthquake, which reached seven points on the Richter scale, destroyed the entire city of Spitak in 30 seconds and ruined the other cities of the republic — Leninakan (now Gyumri), Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Stepanavan. The results from the earthquake affected 21 towns and 350 villages, of which 58 were completely destroyed. According to official figures, 25,000 were killed, 140,000 became disabled and 514,000 homeless. The blow to the north of the republic affected about 40 percent of its territory, and tremors were felt even in Yerevan and Tbilisi.

The Deputy Secretary General emphasized the importance of both direct aid to Armenia and Armenia’s participation in providing indirect aid in the early days of the earthquake as a donor country of the UN Central Emergency Fund.

Translated from Russian by Yerevan Report