THOUSAND OAKS : 3 Armenians Given Tour of Their Town’s Sister City

Arsen Ohanian’s idea of an excellent adventure is a visit to the local Rotary club, a spin through a modern sewer plant and a tour of a landfill.

That’s not so unusual for the mayor of Spitak, a town in Armenia where almost every building was leveled during an earthquake four years ago.

Ohanian is part of a three-member Armenian delegation that arrived in Thousand Oaks early Monday to seal a sister-city relationship.

Officials said they were eager to reinforce the relationship with educational and business ties with the United States. After a 6:30 p.m. ceremony today at City Hall, Thousand Oaks will join 94 other cities across America that have sister cities in the former Soviet Union.

“A decade ago, any thoughts of entering a relationship like this would probably not have received a strong response from their central government,” said Thousand Oaks Mayor Robert E. Lewis. “Now it is completely different.”

Relations between Thousand Oaks and Spitak blossomed after an earthquake devastated the city on Dec. 7, 1988.

Immediately after the quake, many of the estimated 400 members of Thousand Oaks’ ethnic Armenian community collected relief funds to send to Spitak, located about 60 miles north of Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

Since then, some schools, houses and factories in the town of about 18,500 people were rebuilt after they were destroyed in the quake. Now, only about 14,000 people live in Spitak, Ohanian said.

“After the earthquake, a lot of countries helped,” Ohanian said, speaking through an interpreter. But since Armenia declared its independence last year, the dollars have stopped coming. “Now nobody helps because there’s no Soviet Union.”

This week’s visit to America was the first for Ohanian. He was accompanied by Norig Mickaelian, director of a sugar beet factory, who wants to explore Ventura County’s agricultural industry.

The small delegation, joined by Karine Dillakian, an English language teacher, is scheduled to visit schools, businesses and City Hall during its two-week tour.

The delegation will also ride in Saturday’s Conejo Valley Days parade along with Mayor Lewis and delegation members are planning a visit to the Armenian-American community in Fresno.

Besides all the serious destinations, the group’s adventure will also cover some of Southern California’s biggest tourist attractions, including Beverly Hills and the Santa Monica Pier. And of course, Ohanian said, “Disneyland is in the program.”