Forgotten Photos I took on Lake Sevan a Year after the Disastrous Spitak Earthquake of 1988, Armenia

 

 

 

A major earthquake shook a town, Spitak, in Northern Armenia on December 7, 1988. The surface-wave magnitude of the quake was 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X or Devastating. About 50,000 people were killed and up to 130,000 were injured. Mikhail Gorbachev formally asked the United States for humanitarian aid, along with 130 other countries. All countries responded within 4 days of the earthquake with much needed assistance by providing rescue equipment, medication, and medical and public health teams.

A year later, in November 1989, I was part of a public health team that visited Armenia to assist the government design an epidemiological prospective tracking of the earthquake survivors’ health status, as well as the health impact of the natural disaster on regions surrounding Spite. That project is still ongoing in 2026.

… As an exclusively film-user photographer I traveled around our green earth in the past 50 years, I have kept miles of 35 and 120mm negatives, mostly well preserved in (often) clearly labeled envelopes. Last week, looking through a box of negatives, I came across an envelope labeled “Spite, 1989.”

I was surprised, since I thought that all my exposed films during that trip were destroyed by the miss-calibrated metal detector at Moscow airport. But, there was one 35mm strip that had obviously survived and, although I do not recall it, I had developed.

So, time for discovery!

I went to my darkroom and printed a few frames that looked good under the loupe. And with the magic of a photo slowly appearing in the developer solution under a red light, suddenly almost 40 years’ old memories came back. Now I recalled exactly when I took these photos!

There were frames of colleagues during our trip to Spitak, and then in the capital Yerevan. But the most interesting ones were from a half-day trip we took to Lake Sevan, the most historic and large Lake of present day Armenia. So I decided to print a few from that trip.

It was a sunny day, and the shores of the lake were covered in the November snow. We walked to the Hayravank church, lit a candle, said a prayer and listened to a local colleague tell us the story of the church.

The two photos I printed are of the church from a distance, and of the steps leading to that church.

 

The Hayravank church: Built between the 9^th and 12^th centuries, Hayravank is a dark basalt construction that sits on a high cliff overlooking Lake Sevan. It is more humble than the main church on Lake Sevan, the Sevanavank, which is easier to access.

The day of our visit there were magnificent clouds for a B&W photo. I recall trying to capture the church on the high cliff and the snowy path.

Unfortunately my 1953 Soviet Kiev camera did not do well with the shade that covered the historic stone carved “cross stones” along the way.

These cross stones, called khachkar are carved memorial steles are to show a cross and additional motifs, such as interlaces. Their origin goes back to the 9^th century when Armenia was liberated from Arab rule.  It is said that there are about 40,000 khachkars in today’s Armenia, many preserved in Yerevan museums and many are still standing in ancient cemeteries.

Since the carving of the two khachkars on the path to Hayravank did not show well in my photo, here is one from Noratus cemetery where more than 1000 khachkars exist.  (https://armgeo.am )

 

 

… Almost 40 years later, an old B&W film negative strip came to refresh my memory of difficult times in Armenia following the 1988 Spitak earthquake. But, the people’s resolve of that ancient country stood unshaken and Armenia is today a regional leader in mining copper and molybdenum, as well as software development and information technology.

And I have heard many a master of ceremonies at social gatherings who have raised their glass and, tongue-and-cheek, recited Winston Churchill’s secret for a long life:

                                    “Cuban cigars, Armenian brandy and no sport.”

Things have changed, since.

 

February 19, 2026

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2026

 

PS/ I dedicate this posting to the memory of Dr. Harout Armenian who passed in 2025. A physician, epidemiologist, painter, author and academician, Harout was the second president of the American University of Armenia. He designed and directed the epidemiological survey of the 1988 Spitak survivors ‘and populations in the regions.

He was a mentor for two generations of public health professionals around the globe, and a very dear personal friend.