Armenian Concocted Survival Story, Soviet Media Say

The sister of a man who said that he and five companions survived 35 days in the rubble of the Dec. 7 Armenian earthquake says the story was concocted so her brother could get into a good hospital, Soviet media reported Saturday.

The Tass news agency said reporters had tracked down Aikaz Akopyan’s sister, Julietta, who Akopyan said witnessed his rescue Jan. 11 from the ruins of his nine-story apartment building in the city of Leninakan.

Neither officials nor local journalists had been able to find his sister or the five other people reportedly rescued with Akopyan, a 50-year-old electrician. They could find no witnesses to the reported rescue.

“At first the sister denied her kinship with Akopyan but later acknowledged that it was she who had brought Aikaz to the Yerevan hospital and that he really was her brother,” Tass said.

“According to her words, it appears that on Jan. 6, Aikaz requested her to drive him to a good Yerevan hospital and it was on the way to Yerevan that a story of rescue after 35 days was ostensibly invented,” Tass said.

An internist at the hospital told Tass he believes that Akopyan had been suffering chronic lung and heart deficiencies for at least several years.

Akopyan maintained that he had asked the five others to help him carry two large kegs to the basement of the apartment building when the earthquake struck. They were stuck in the basement, which served as a food cellar, and survived on canned vegetables, smoked ham, stewed fruit and pickles, he said. He also said he sang songs to keep their spirits up.

Tass said Akopyan is sticking to his story and that he had threatened to jump out a hospital window if reporters did not leave him alone.