Aid To Armenia – January 1993

Location

Armenia

Team Deployment

4 member team and 2 specialists

Y Care International proposed to fund two specialists to travel to Armenia and produce a definitive report covering possible routes for the shipment of aid. IRC was asked to provide a small support & communications team to help these specialists.

For more details about this mission please click here: Armenia Logistics – December 1992

At the time of this mission Armenia was at war with neighbouring Azerbaijan and a devastating earthquake in 1988 in the north of the country had left over 25,000 dead. The result of these two events had left Armenians impoverished and desperate. Armenia is a landlocked country, whose main transport arteries ran through Azerbaijan; these had been cut, as had fuel supplies and in response to the earthquake, the government had decided to shut down the country’s nuclear reactor as precaution, a reactor that provided a third of the country’s power needs. Added to the Azeri economic blockade, the life of the ordinary Armenian became unbearable.

2 January 1993

In 1993 IRC were asked to co-ordinate the transport of aid to Armenia on behalf of Y Care, Oxfam and the Womens Campaign for Soviet Jewry. Items to be transported included food, blankets, clothes, medical supplies and a bulk storage shelter covering a 10 x 24 metre area.

One problem is the lack of fuel in Armenia (Jet A1) and it would be necessary for the C130’s to have sufficient fuel to fly from Yerevan to another country to refuel. The Armenian Embassy in London is also very interested in the project and the Ambassador has suggested that he will be contacting N.A.T.O direct on this subject.
The situation in Armenia is extremely grave and it is the opinion of all parties that such humanitarian relief flights would be of great benefit to the morale of the population in need.