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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS: The 1988 earthquake and its consequences must not be forgotten: Armenia is situated in seismically active zone, Michael Melkumyan, chairman of the Association of Seismic Resistant Constructions, stated today at a meeting with journalists, adding that we – Armenians, have not taken lessons from that earthquake. “We have very hard heritage from the Soviet Union.
The central government did not pay much attention to Armenia then, as Armenia was just a point for the whole soviet territory and it did not wish to spend much for construction of seismic resistant buildings in Armenia,” the speaker said, stressing that today we do not have that right. “Today we are a nation, a state, which must think about its security, including the seismic security,” Mr. Melkumyan said. Referring to the works in that direction, the specialist said that currently seismic norms are worked out and ready, according to which the planning of buildings must be implemented.
According to him, only in that case the buildings of the disaster zone will be trustworthy. “There is nothing impossible, we should only construct, plan and calculate literally and correctly. Then we can calmly sleep,” Mr. Melkumyan noted. According to calculations and researches, there are 41 thousand buildings in Yerevan. The 30-32 thousand of them are private houses, including old buildings constructed without norms, and the number of the capital construction is nearly 7 thousand. “All those buildings have already expired their life,” Mr. Melkumyan said.