“Tsarukyan” alliance MP Vardan Ghukasyan made a speech dedicated to the 1998 earthquake and disaster zone during the hour of announcements in Parliament, and after his speech he crossed standing on the tribune and then only left. He told: “in those years, millions of donations entered the country and unfortunately did not reach the public, certain people opened accounts in banks with those money, the money was frozen and the people remained in the clothes they were wearing during the day of the earthquake until now. Every second house is emptied.”
He said that Gyumri man is not used to entering home with an empty hand: “When he enters home, the children tell him – dear dad, I am hungry, dear dad, I want a bread, the father is having a heart attack.”
He said that in former Leninakan which had 300.000 residents, the death toll was fewer than in current Gyumri with 150.000 residents. Ghukasyan noted that while Yerevan budget amounts to 85 billion AMD, Gyumri budget accounts for 3 billion AMD: “I know this, when Leninakan people were getting out of ruins, they were asking whether anything had happened to Yerevan, and when Gorbachev came during the 3rd day, they asked him about Karabakh issue.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
