Violence in Homeland Stuns O.C. Armenians

As political turmoil exploded in Armenia on Wednesday, members of Southern California’s large Armenian community were saddened and stunned by events threatening the small nation.

From parks in Glendale to the Armenian Consulate on the Westside, at businesses in Norwalk and Newport Beach, people were taken aback by the news that gunmen had opened fire in the parliament building in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisyan and other officials.

“Shock best describes our reaction,” said Vicken Sonentz-Papazian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee, a nationwide advocacy group with offices in Los Angeles. “This is a sad day.”

Nerves are frayed, said Daniel Albarian, former pastor of the Armenian Christian Fellowship of Orange County in Santa Ana and current pastor of the nearly 800-member Christian Outreach for Armenians at Glendale Presbyterian Church.

“We want to reassure people that this was something that was not planned, it was an impulsive thing by a small group of people who took the law into their own hands to manipulate the situation,” said Albarian, who lives in La Palma. “We’re praying for the families of the people who died, and we are praying for the stability of the country. It’s easy to go into a tailspin over something like this.”

The Los Angeles area is home to about 300,000 ethnic Armenians, one of the largest concentrations outside the former Soviet republic. Of those, more than 10,000 live in Orange County, which has three Armenian churches: two in Santa Ana, one in Costa Mesa.

So it was not surprising that calls flooded the offices of the consulate and an Armenian newspaper Wednesday, many from people worried about family.

“People are concerned and want to know what is happening,” said Ara Khachatourian, an editor with Asbarez, a Glendale-based newspaper that is published daily in English and Armenian.

An Armenian cable television station in Glendale was broadcasting updates on the crisis every half an hour.

Immigrants who monitor Armenian politics closely were stunned.

“I condemn their actions,” Mardig Herculian, who came to Orange County 13 years ago, said of the attackers. “This is the worst thing that could have happened. Why this time?”

Herculian, 60, who owns Mardi’s Mediterranean Cuisine in Newport Beach, said the prime minister spoke a few weeks ago about combating government corruption. Afterward, the political atmosphere seemed less charged, headed toward a period of relative calm, he said.

“The timing, I can’t understand it,” Herculian said. “Everybody was upbeat. Things were improving.”

At Glendale Central Park, where about 200 elderly Armenian men played backgammon, smoked cigarettes or read newspapers, a large group gathered around a picnic table to discuss the events. Some saw them as yet another blow to a struggling nation that has had its share of social and economic problems since declaring independence as the Soviet Union was crumbling in 1991.

“It’s not right what they did,” said Agop Parseghian, 75. “The prime minister was a hero.”

Harry Injayan, 73, said every developing country suffers periods of violence and “has its ups and downs.”

Glendale has the largest Armenian community in the Los Angeles area, with an estimated 40,000 members.

The congressman who represents the area, Republican James E. Rogan, offered his sympathies to Armenia and his constituents.

“The prayers of my family are with the victims’ families, with [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan and with the Armenian people at home and abroad,” Rogan said.

At the Carousel restaurant in Hollywood, 21-year-old Ruben Krikorian said he was worried about the uncle and grandmother he left behind in Armenia about six years ago.

Given the country’s recent history, Krikorian said, “I knew that one day this would happen.”

Since breaking from the former Soviet Union, the small nation’s people have endured economic hardships, fuel shortages and warfare with neighboring Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

Nonetheless, some Armenian Americans in Los Angeles said they had been encouraged in recent months. Officials, they said, appeared to be cracking down on corruption, giving rise to optimism.

“We were hoping that things would head in the right direction,” said Harry Kasbarian, who owns a tire store in Norwalk. “This shatters your dreams like an earthquake.”

Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.