Armenian-Americans Drawn to Roots to Assist ‘Brothers’ in Soviet Republic : Homeland: They bring money, skills and hopes to build a market economy out of Communist ruins.

A businessman from Chicago with Armenian roots has invested in a toy factory in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. An Armenian-American lawyer left his well-paid job in Los Angeles to work for an American organization in Yerevan. And a construction engineer, whose ancestors came from Armenia, has spent the last 1 1/2 years rebuilding a village destroyed in the devastating 1988 earthquake.

After decades of forced separation from their homeland because of their opposition to communism, hundreds of Armenian-Americans have made short visits to their ancestral land since the Dec. 7, 1988, quake, many working temporarily on relief projects.

Dozens have stayed longer or made repeated trips. Some are investing capital in business ventures, such as a travel agency, an optical store and a semiconductor manufacturing plant. Others are helping rebuild the cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake or caring for people still physically or mentally suffering from the disaster.

They are returning with money, skills and high hopes of helping their people escape economic disaster and rebuild on the basis of a market economy.

“I went as a return to my roots and a way to take part in the recovery and rebirth of the land of my forefathers,” said Raffi K. Hovannisian, a Los Angeles lawyer. “It’s an honor and a responsibility because at this time Armenia really needs the help of its sons and daughters around the world.”

Hovannisian, 30, left his successful law practice in January to run the Armenian Assembly of America’s Yerevan office, which was the first American organization in Armenia when it opened soon after the devastating 1988 temblor.

The Armenian Assembly is constructing three factories in Leninakan, Armenia’s largest city after Yerevan, to manufacture building materials, which are desperately needed to house nearly 500,000 earthquake victims who are still living in shacks and railroad cars, awaiting new homes.

The Yerevan office began as an earthquake relief clearinghouse but now also monitors the rapidly changing political scene, keeping Armenians around the world in touch with developments in their homeland.

“All Armenian children in America were taught that when Armenia becomes free, we will support it and use the experience we have gained in the United States to help Armenia,” Hovannisian said. “Now the free Armenia we always talked about is on the verge of being formed.”

Armenia’s newly elected nationalist government, the first non-Communist government here in more than 70 years, is depending on Armenians abroad to help the republic in its transition to a market economy and a multi-party, democratic government.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s new president, is visiting Los Angeles, New York and Washington in hopes of rallying financial support and other kinds of assistance from Armenian Americans.

“Relations with Armenians from abroad have moral and intellectual significance for us, as well as economic,” Ter-Petrosyan, said in an interview. “They help to train our people in new ways of working, especially in technical and engineering fields. We value this even more than financial help.”

Armenians were scattered to many countries around the globe after the campaign of genocide against the Armenian people in what is now Turkey. French, Lebanese, Iranians and others of Armenian heritage also made trips to their homeland after the earthquake to work on the relief effort. A small percentage of them stayed for the long haul.

Lily Bouldoukian, 53, arrived in Armenia soon after the earthquake and has only gone back to her home in Westport, Conn., for short vacations.

“Of course, it’s satisfying to help anybody in the world who has suffered a disaster,” Bouldoukian said. “But it’s much more emotionally touching to help your own people.”

As a relief worker for Save the Children, she is managing the construction of a physical rehabilitation center in Leninakan, which was nearly flattened in the earthquake. She has high hopes that Ter-Petrosyan’s government will revive her homeland, which she sees as economically depressed after 70 years of Communist rule.

“The new government seems very promising and very patriotic,” she said. “The whole world should help this new government, not only Armenian emigres. It is a democratic government, the leaders are highly motivated and, for the first time, they are not appointed because they are good Communist Party members but because the people trust them.”

In one of the several programs that Bouldoukian has coordinated over the past 21 months, Armenian psychologists were sent to Harvard University for training in dealing with post-trauma syndrome and then to the Armenian community in Southern California for clinical experience.

These doctors are already working with earthquake victims, but other relief projects, such as the rehabilitation center, have been stalled. Basic necessities are in such short supply that relief projects move along at a snail’s pace, Bouldoukian said.

“Most of my time and money is used just to get things for my team,” she said.

Earlier this month, Vahe Khachadourian, a construction engineer from Lexington, Mass., gave keys to 40 new homes to Armenian villagers who had been homeless since the earthquake. Khachadourian was the chief engineer on the construction project, which was financed with donations to the West Coast office of Armenian Relief Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund for America.

The emotion of turning over the keys was diminished only by the knowledge that it should have happened much sooner, said Khachadourian, who has been in Yerevan for a year and a half.

“Work goes much slower here than any place I’ve ever been,” he said. “A lack of materials and a work ethic are the main reasons.”

Despite his frustrations, Khachadourian hopes to start a business of his own in Yerevan as soon as he finishes the construction of four more villages.

“I want to invest in this country,” he said. “Investments in this country should not be donations. Anyone who starts a business here should be a part of the business, not just give money to someone and have them waste it. This is the way to educate the people.”