Sustaining the Armenian Quake Relief Effort : Southland’s Armenian community suffers own aftershocks.

Holy Martyrs Armenian School, bursting at the seams in its Encino campus, had just closed escrow on a $2-million school facility nearby when the Armenian earthquake hit last month. Now faced with monthly mortgage interest payments of $18,000, school officials are concerned about how they’re going to come up with the money.

Members of the committee to build an Armenian community center in Granada Hills were so involved in operating the San Fernando Valley’s round-the-clock earthquake relief effort, they missed a crucial Dec. 15 deadline for a $200,000 grant and loan from the city of Los Angeles. Because it lacks the necessary funding, the project to house senior citizens and a social service center is indefinitely on hold, said Raffi Sarkissian, 31, spokesman for the committee.

And in observance of a 40-day period of mourning that ends Monday, thousands of Southern California Armenians chose not to celebrate Christmas, New Year’s or Armenian Christmas on Jan. 6. Dozens more have postponed baptisms and weddings since the 6.9 quake hit Soviet Armenia on Dec. 7.

“How can you celebrate when people are dying over there?” said Viken Ghanimian, 28, who canceled his elaborate wedding dinner for 400 and donated a portion of the money he would have spent to the earthquake relief effort.

City Within a City

Clearly, the quake that claimed 25,000 lives in northwestern Armenia has precipitated a number of aftershocks in the Southern California Armenian community as well. Numbering about 300,000, the largest outside of the Soviet Union, the local community supports about 11 schools, 16 churches and a wide range of organizations in the Southland.

But preoccupied with rescue efforts and mourning the deaths of fellow Armenians, many local groups have chosen to cancel pivotal fund-raising events that normally help refill depleted coffers. Feeling the effects of the lack of funding are churches, schools and community groups which are postponing major building and renovation projects.

“Everything is on hold,” said Archbishop Datev Sarkissian, head of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. “Our priority is to rebuild our Armenian cities.”

About $7 million in building projects to be undertaken by the prelacy are now at a standstill, according to the archbishop. Among other delayed projects: construction of youth center in Hollywood, where the lion’s share of Southern California’s large Armenian population resides, and the structural reinforcement of St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Glendale, which, ironically, needs to be brought up to earthquake standards.

Slim December

The quake’s impact on Southern California’s economy was felt most sharply in December. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost as a result of canceled New Year’s Eve parties and because many Armenians decided to make donations to earthquake relief efforts in lieu of buying Christmas gifts. According to community leaders, Armenian dinner dances and other fund-raising activities, usually held on New Year’s Eve or in January, typically net as much as $30,000 each for a single organization.

While Armenian leaders are confident about recouping losses, businesses hurt by the New Year’s Eve cancellations may have a harder time of it. The Los Angeles Hilton and Towers, for instance, lost 15% of its December revenues when the Armenian General Athletic Union (Homentmen), which had reserved the three large banquet halls for 1,500 guests, cancelled its celebration.

“To be dark on New Year’s Eve is a big blow to a hotel,” said Dawn Prebula, the hotel’s director of catering. “But it’s one of those things. These are circumstances beyond control.” (The Hilton refunded the organization’s $2,500 deposit, which was used to support earthquake relief efforts, she noted.)

Put Off Indefinitely

Roubina Begoumian, 48, a Glendale caterer widely known in the Armenian community, said she lost about $50,000 in December alone as a result of canceled weddings and parties.

“The worst thing is morale is down,” Begoumian said. “People are not even thinking of planning parties.” Her company, Robert’s Catering, is now relying primarily on its large non-Armenian clientele, she added.

But Armenian spokesmen say fund-raising activities must resume soon because many local institutions are struggling with heavy debt. Too, they feel the community must continue its political, social and cultural activities to stay intact.

“You can’t cut off your hands while plowing the fields,” said the Rev. Steve Muncherian of the United Armenian Congregational Church in Hollywood.

Preserving the Community

At Holy Martyrs Armenian School, where making mortgage interest payments is now a prime concern, principal Gabriel Injejikian said: “I’m worried. But we’ll just have to work harder to make the payments.”

“We’re determined to go forward with our fund-raising effort,” added school trustee Petre Akaragian, 36, a Santa Monica certified public accountant. “We have a commitment to the community to keep the next few generations Armenian. That involves the school, that involves the church. It involves everybody in the community contributing to both the local cause, which is the school and the church, and to Armenia.”

Injejikian, 58, believes there are many untapped contributors in the community. “In my opinion, we haven’t reached our capacity to give,” he said.

Indeed, officials with the earthquake relief effort in the San Fernando Valley did an informal study of donations from local Armenians. The average contribution was $125, small change compared to the $5,000 and $20,000 pledges some organizations have been asking for and getting, said George Mahshigian, 31, a financial consultant and member of the Armenian Cultural Foundation.

“About half the contributors we’d never heard of before,” said Mahshigian, explaining there are people who aren’t involved in the Armenian community who might be drawn in.

Long-Term Planning

Local Armenians are now thinking about how to pick up the pieces of what was lost in December and how to shift from crisis to long-term planning for the massive and costly reconstruction of their homeland. The head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicos Vazken I, is scheduled to arrive in the United States later this month with a proposal that Armenians living outside the country shoulder the financial responsibility of rebuilding Stepanavan, a town of some 20,000 whose buildings were rendered uninhabitable by the quake.

While uncertain about the practicality of such a plan, Southland Armenians are eager to help and community leaders are studying how best to assist in reconstruction.

Long-Term Aid

Raffi Hovannisian, 29, a Los Angeles attorney and trustee of the Washington-based Armenian Assembly of America, spent Christmas in Armenia, setting up an office that will help in the transfer of Western construction machinery to the Soviet Union and in training personnel to rebuild the quake-devastated areas. Establishment of such an office is seen as a step toward opening a line of communication between Armenian-Americans and officials in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, Hovannisian said.

“Individuals, organizations like the National Assn. of Home Builders, CARE and World Vision, and governments have let the Soviet government know that if there’s a place for them, they will help,” he said. “We’re going to work on helping aid get to specific rehabilitation projects, to revitalize Armenia and help it rise from the ashes.”

Three other broad-based organizations, the Armenian Relief Society, Armenian General Benevolent Union and Armenian Missionary Assn. of America, are working to establish a list of what’s needed in Armenia, said Alice Mandelian, 45, vice president of the worldwide Armenian Relief Society. Working with the U.S. State Department, the three groups will spend millions of dollars in donations on goods needed in Armenia, she added.

Meanwhile, other Armenian organizations are concerned with the estimated 40,000 children orphaned by the quake, the need for prosthetic devices for the injured and copy machines to duplicate the millions of books destroyed.

Recent Immigrants’ Shock

Heartening as the efforts may be, it will take time for Armenians in America--particularly those newly emigrated from the Soviet Union--to recover from the tragedy. “They are numb. They feel pretty hopeless,” Zabel Alahydoian, executive director of the Armenian Evangelical Social Service Center, said of the more than 200 immigrants who take English-language classes at the Hollywood center.

Alahydoian, a psychologist, has stepped up counseling efforts to help families cope with the trauma of losing relatives and friends. “One person lost her head, she was so upset. She ran out into the street and was gone for a whole day. They found her in the evening. She was a shambles,” Alahydoian said.

Though in mourning, most students at the center did participate in the annual yuletide party “because it was the first Christmas in America for most of them,” she added.

“We broke bread together. It was very somber. I had to say some words of hope, then someone recited a nice poem about the earthquake. It was dramatic,” Alahydoian said.

Published in Soviet Armenia, the poem by Aramayis Sahakian ends with a plea: “Today we are very shaken, torn to pieces/Oh God, let this be our last sorrow.”