March 01, 1989 by George Otis, Jr.

It couldn't have happened at a worse time. But, then again, tragedy is rarely discriminate or convenient. It came as dark-eyed children were busy with their lessons, sweating factory workers were thinking about lunchtime, and socialist bureaucrats were shuffling what seconds earlier had seemed like all-important paperwork. At precisely 11:41 a.m. on December 7, 1988, one of history's deadliest earthquakes rolled through the northern districts of the Soviet Republic of Armenia. For the citizens of Stepanavan, Leninakan, Spitak and Kirovakan, death arrived at prime time.

For a radius of 30 miles around the quake's epicenter, virtually every building higher than two stories was leveled. The town of Spitak, perhaps hardest hit, lost most of a generation. Its schools, which hosted nearly all local children between the ages of 3 and 17 when the temblor struck, were flattened. In nearby villages like Lusakhpur, many who managed to survive the quake's initial wrath subsequently froze to death awaiting help in sub-zero temperatures.

Now, weeks later, the grim task of counting the dead continues. Already in the tens of thousands, rescue workers expect the final tally to be even higher. As the first flickers of electricity are restored to the region, undamaged television sets bring traumatized survivors the wrenching news that another killer quake has claimed more than a thousand victims in the Central Asian Republic of Tadzhikistan. More horrifying, however, are warnings of further seismic upheaval in Armenia.

Even without further damage to the region, the cost of restoring Armenia's shattered cities and industries will be enormous. In a fashion similar to the recent Chernobyl disaster—which cost the government some $13 billion for clean-up and relocation—Moscow has made rebuilding the earthquake-stricken cities a crash two-year project. Restoring Armenia's shattered psyche, however, promises to be a far more difficult and costly task.

“We Left the Rain and Entered the Hail”

Following a late December visit to Armenia sponsored by the U.S. State Department, USC engineering professor Mihran Agbabian spoke with Issachar's Eastern European Regional Director, Steve Weber, about what he had seen:

"The overall impression one comes away with after viewing the human side of this tragedy is one of confusion, grief, and despair. Depression ran deep and was nearly universal. In most cases, however, it did not seem to originate with the quake itself.

"Earlier in the year political arguments between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the jointly-claimed autonomous republic of Nagorno-Karabakh erupted into violent pogroms launched by angry Azeris against Armenians living in Azerbaijan. As a consequence of these actions well over 200,000 Armenians fled into Armenia seeking haven and employment. It was in the midst of this painful dislocation that December's earthquake struck as a kind of cruel coup de grace.”

As one political refugee remarked in the aftermath of the devastation: "We left the rain and entered the hail." Emma Alaberdyan, who along with her two sons fled anti-Armenian violence earlier in the year only to settle in the stricken city of Leninakan, lamented over the ruins: "The Armenians are the Jobs of the 20th century."

Conflict in the Caucasus

The Soviet Transcaucasian republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan boast the distinction of straddling the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia. Bordering Turkey and Iran, and sandwiched between the Black and Caspian Seas, the Caucasus region is located on the Soviet Union's southwestern flank.

It is on this relatively narrow strip of land that one finds some of the world's oldest and most steadfast cultures. And while, as Hungarian writer Ilona Turanzky observes, "There are a number of similarities between the peoples living in the Caucasus," it is also true that "there are at least as many differences."

One of these differences is religion, and it is in this category that Azerbaijan is the odd sister of the three Caucasian republics. Unlike its neighbors to the west, Azerbaijan has almost no Christian history whatsoever. Arab expeditionary forces managed to conquer the area in the seventh century, and it has remained Muslim ever since.

In February 1988, the region's long fermenting political, ethnic and religious differences finally boiled to the surface in an ugly display of violence in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. Inflamed with rage, bands of young Azeris leapt upon unsuspecting Armenian neighbors with a vengeance that left between thirty and several hundred people dead, depending on who was counting.

In November, when one of the perpetrators was executed for his crimes in Moscow, a crowd of 800,000 gathered in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku demanding Armenian blood. Waving green Islamic flags, the demonstrators shouted: "Long live the heroes of Sumgait!" On the same day, Azerbaijani Shi'ite mobs went on a rampage against Armenians in the city of Kirovabad and elsewhere, killing and injuring an additional 130 people.

Rather than lessening tensions in the region, December's devastating earthquake only seemed to provide another opportunity for inflicting pain. In an astonishing account of inhumanity, the Soviet news daily Pravda reported that some Azerbaijanis publicly cheered the news of the tragedy and sent mocking telegrams to the Armenian capital of Yerevan. Later, as Soviet Interior Ministry troops left their protective posts around the Armenian quarter in Baku to assist victims in the quake zone, reports surfaced that rioters in the city had set fire to Armenian homes.

Unlocking the “Jail of Nationalities”

It is now an open question as to whether Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost (openness) has set loose forces too powerful for even the Soviet system to contain. A series of extraordinary events this past year suggest that glasnost is now viewed by many Soviet minorities as the key to unlock what has been called the "jail of nationalities."

The Baltic republic of Estonia took the lead on November 16 when its Parliament voted to declare national sovereignty. A week later the Georgian Parliament demanded that the new Soviet constitution guarantee to republics the right to veto laws from Moscow, and keep intact a republic's paper right to secede from the USSR. Outside the Parliament building over 200,000 nationalists marched through the streets carrying banners which read: "Long Live Independent Georgia!"

When angry crowds of 800,000 and 500,000 gathered in the cities of Baku and Yerevan, the Soviet government preempted yet another declaration of national sovereignty by the Armenian Parliament. Arkadi Volsky, Moscow's de facto governor general for the Transcaucasus region, summarily adjourned the November 22 legislative session and dismissed deputies to their homes.

In an effort to deal with the dispute over Nagorno -Karabakh, Moscow has taken two rather extreme measures. The most recent of these, a decision to administer the disputed territory directly from Moscow under a special clause of the constitution, was announced in mid-January. The other move, denounced vigorously by human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, has been the systematic arrest and imprisonment of twelve popular Armenian nationalist leaders called the Karabakh Committee.

Perhaps the most interesting figure on the Committee is Khachig Stanbulian. A powerful orator, Stanbulian has evidenced a burning passion for God as well as country. In addition to being one of the most brilliant biochemists in the USSR, Stanbulian recently defeated the Armenian Interior Minister in a highly unusual write-in campaign for a vacant seat in the Parliament. He is the first non-Party member on record to be elected to an official government position.

Having accepted Christ some five years ago, Stanbulian has since become an evangelical firebrand within the Armenian Apostolic Church. A veritable whirlwind of activity, Stanbulian has personally distributed Bibles to children, established the first officially-recognized charitable organization in the USSR, and engaged in mass evangelism with crowds gathered to hear nationalistic speeches. After drawing tens of thousands of people together with emotional pleas for the return of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian control, Stanbulian has seized upon the opportunity to remind those gathered of their Christian heritage and the claims of the gospel. Recent reports from Armenia indicate that significant numbers of people have responded to his messages.

The Church in Transcaucasia

Other reports from the quake zone are full of wonder and hope. In a manner reminiscent of the divine protection afforded believers during a recent earthquake in Soviet Kirghizia, Christians in Armenia indicated during a late December phone conversation with friends in the United States that they knew of no injuries or fatalities among believers in Leninakan.
Another Armenian believer phoned her brother in Boston to share the dramatic conversion of Vartan, a notorious atheist, alcoholic, and long-time adversary of the church living in Leninakan. Many were praying for his conversion or removal. When the earthquake struck, Vartan rushed out of his collapsing home into the street and cried out to God for forgiveness for the mischief he had caused. At that precise moment the tremor ceased, and Vartan and his entire family became members of the household of faith.

In Leninakan only one of the city's seven churches survived the earthquake— the Armenian Orthodox church on the main city square. Here, and in other Apostolic churches throughout Armenia, many are finding quiet comfort and consolation. The danger is that, once out of the earthquake's shadow, the church may function more as a symbol of Armenian nationalism than as an instrument of the living Christ.

Working to prevent this are people like Archdeacon Aram Stepanian, an evangelical member of the Armenian Apostolic Church in America and the publisher of Zartonk (Revival) magazine. A frequent visitor to Armenia, Stepanian acknowledges that "to the Apostolic church the word evangelism is foreign." As a consequence, Stepanian refers to his evangelistic meetings (complete with altar calls) as "lecture series." Converts are encouraged by the teaching to follow in their forefathers' footsteps and go out into their communities as active witnesses for Christ.

At present there are perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 registered evangelicals in the Transcaucasian region, and, in all likelihood, an even larger number of unregistered believers. Even if born-again members of the Orthodox churches are included in the overall tally, however, it is unlikely that the number of genuine Christians in the region would represent more than 1 percent of the population.

Unreached Peoples

Despite recent gains, spiritual need in the Caucasian republics remains acute. This is especially true of Azerbaijan, where only a handful of native Azeri believers are known to exist. Most Azerbijani Muslims belong to the Shi'ite sect, as do local Talysh, Kurdish and Persian peoples. The peoples of Daghestan, on the other hand, are almost all Sunni Muslims, as are the Abkhazian, Ossetian, Circassian, Chechen-Ingush, and Karachay-Balkars national groups.

Occult and animistic practices are also widespread, particularly in rural districts. In Azerbaijan's southernmost sector, the Talysh mountain range provides a thick curtain between the Soviet Union and her Iranian neighbor. Deep in the mountains, the Talysh people and their ancient customs—including bathing in sanctified streams and the use of amulets—live undisturbed except by the tigers and leopards that roam the slopes and valleys.

Some Caucasian believers, most notably in Armenia, are now asking Western missions for scriptures in local languages and dialects. Although evangelistic interest in unreached peoples can be found across the confessional spectrum in Armenia, it is perhaps greatest among the unregistered Pentecostals. According to Issachar board member, Dr. Ken Touryan, a charismatic revival began in the region in the late 1970s and has now spread to every major village in Armenia. Some groups have established prayer groups to call upon God for the salvation of unreached Muslims, while others are actually making evangelistic trips into Central Asian republics.

Opportunities for Witness and Service

A few "tentmakers" are currently resident in the Soviet Caucasus as well. Most of these are students from various Third World countries. Although only a handful have come to the area with the express intention of engaging in evangelism and discipleship, most have nevertheless made themselves available to the Lord.

Others like Dr. Touryan, a top physicist, have been afforded opportunities to share the gospel during shorter-term visits to the region. On trips financed by the Armenian Academy of Sciences and the Fulbright scholarship program, Dr. Touryan has been able to lead several to Christ through addresses before Soviet academicians and students at Yerevan State University, and through the distribution of Christian apologetic material.

At this particular moment the jury is still out relative to the long-term impact of glasnost on the church in Armenia. Many are fearful that the limits of the new openness have been reached with the arrest of Khachig Stanbulian. Now that the more vocal leaders have been silenced, many rank-and-file believers are struggling to decide whether to carry on boldly or keep a low profile.

Others, meanwhile, are encouraged by the government's unprecedented willingness to allow the church a role in providing assistance to disaster victims. With hundreds of thousands of homeless Armenians currently in need of human warmth and concern, the situation presently confronting the church may prove to be the greatest outreach opportunity it has ever known.

Efforts are currently underway to help coordinate a church-based relief committee in Armenia uniting spiritual leaders from Baptist, Pentecostal, and Apostolic churches. This effort, which will include significant ministry to unbelievers, is the first of its kind and deserves the support of Christians in the West. Contributions may be sent to:

Dr. Ken Touryan Operation Caucasus Earthquake Aid Evergreen Fellowship 31347 Tamarisk Lane Evergreen, CO 80439

George Otis, Jr. is the President of Issachar Frontier Missions Strategies, a Seattle-based ministry that for the past eight years has been concerned with the evangelization of unreached peoples living in difficult-to-access areas. Issachar provides its clients with a variety of publications and services designed to facilitate innovative, measurable, and effective ministry programs.

Otis also serves as a Senior Associate with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, and is scheduled to deliver a plenary address on the Church in Challenging Environments at this summer's International Congress on World Evangelization in Manila.

For readers interested in learning more about spiritual needs and opportunities in the Soviet Caucasus, a 150-page handbook is available from Issachar Ministries for a cost of $5 (plus $1 postage). This 1984 publication, which is full of maps, illustrations and photos, contains 26 readable chapters covering everything from the spiritual need of the region to folk life and customs and current ministry opportunities. Due to the sensitive content of the handbook, copies are released to individual purchasers only on the condition that two references from pastors or ministry leaders are included with payment.

Other Issachar-developed publications are: MissionSource, a reference guide to unreached people groups ($2.50); Hidden in Plain Sight, a strategic analysis of Mormon mission strategies ($6.00); and the Strategic Times Journal, a quarterly publication which affords readers a fascinating look at specific restricted-access nations as well as current trends in tentmaking (free upon request). To obtain these materials or a complete publications list, send orders, payment, and inquiries to:

Issachar Frontier Missions Strategies P.O. Box 30727 Seattle, WA 98103 Attention: Mr. Steve Weber