Aunt, Cousins Lived Near Armenian Epicenter : Boy Awaits Word on 22 Missing Relatives

Burbank eighth-grader Jan Gharibian said Tuesday that he hopes an aunt and 21 other relatives from Soviet Armenia are not among the estimated 55,000 killed in a Dec. 7 earthquake.

All of the relatives lived in Leninakan, a town near the magnitude 6.9 quake’s epicenter where few survived.

“I am very sorry for them,” Gharibian, 14, said softly. “I’d like to be there to help them.”

During long-distance telephone conversations with his parents in Iran soon after the earthquake, Gharibian learned that his aunt and cousins had disappeared. He said he was shocked but held out hope that some of them had survived.

“They say 80% of that town is destroyed . . . It doesn’t look very good,” said Armine Hacopian, a counselor at John Burroughs High School, who heard of Gharibian’s worries through Armenian friends in Burbank.

Grandparents Fled to Persia

Gharibian’s grandparents fled from Armenia to Persia--now Iran--in about 1915, when Turks massacred as many as 1.5 million Armenians. Gharibian grew up in Iran but left home a year ago to learn English while staying with his aunt, Rozik Bagdasarian, in Burbank. He is enrolled at John Muir Junior High School.

Bagdasarian did not want to talk about her family in Armenia, Hacopian said. But she did confirm, Hacopian said, that her sister and the other relatives were among the missing.

Hacopian said many Armenians in the Los Angeles area may have lost large numbers of relatives.

“There isn’t an Armenian who hasn’t lost someone,” she said. “For most of us, we just haven’t heard anything yet; we don’t know where they are.”

Gharibian said he visited Leninakan once in 1984, on a visitor’s visa. He remembers it as a very old city, with “lots of cement buildings.” He said he corresponded frequently with his cousins and aunt before the quake.

Like many of the Armenians living in the Los Angeles area, Gharibian and his aunt in Burbank packaged clothes--especially warm sweaters--to send to Soviet Armenia. He also gave “all I had”--about $15--to students collecting relief money at school.

In a show of support for the Armenians, the Burbank Unified School District on Tuesday presented $1,100 in donations from students, teachers and administrators to the local chapter of the Armenian Relief Society.

“We only have 30 Armenian students, but it just goes to show how much people care,” Hacopian said. “They know we are in an earthquake zone here, too.”

At last count, the society’s Los Angeles branches--in Encino and Glendale--had received $621,112 in donations, and pledges continued to arrive in amounts of $10,000 to $15,000 daily, said relief committee member Mardi Gaboudian. Nationally the organization has collected more than $2 million.

Money for Winter Clothing

The money may be used to buy winter clothing and temporary shelters that would be flown to the earthquake-ravaged areas, said Berdj Karapetian, interim project coordinator for the earthquake fund.

Karapetian said the society held off spending its donations because of media reports that supplies were not getting to the places in greatest need. He said society officials are weighing reports from relatives, the State Department and Soviet and Armenian officials before deciding how to spend the money.

“Hopefully, within the next few days it will be identified what kinds of things are needed in terms of human needs,” Karapetian said.

The society has been forced to sell much of the clothing it received because the Soviet government has refused to accept used clothing, he said. It plans to use the profits to buy new warm clothing.