Life in Gyumri will change fundamentally. 

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Karen Karapetyan, on Thursday stated the aforementioned speaking with Gyumri residents during his visit to the second largest city of the country.

“We need to work consistently, every day, so that life changes here; and it will actually change,” Karapetyan stated. “The problems that Gyumri has, our people have today, are surmountable. It’s just that it should be looked at with optimism and work accordingly.

“We [the Armenian government] are creating the conditions so that businesses come, create jobs, the infrastructure; we have a [respective] special plan.”

In Gyumri, PM Karen Karapetyan paid tribute to the innocent victims of the devastating earthquake in 1988, and attended the commemoration ceremony on the 29th anniversary of this tragedy. Those in attendance placed flowers and wreaths at the monument to these victims.

The said earthquake occurred on December 7, 1988, at 11:41am local time. According to official figures, the natural disaster claimed around 25 thousand lives, about 19 thousand people became disabled, and close to 530 thousand others were left homeless. Eighty percent of Gyumri—Leninakan at the time—had turned into rubbles.