Sumgait/Baku Gone Unrecognized

[Inna]

Your dad was smart about it. Dont you wish that all families had left early on?

oh...we didnt leave Baku..we just went on a so called vacation..just until things settled down a little, then we went back to Baku....but I remember from then on we spent a lot of times hiding in the sellar. We didnt leave Baku until December of 88, which we then moved to Armenia only to come face to face with another big disaster a few days later.

[ArmoBarbi]

you left in 88? Thats still good

My family left in 89

[winoman]

oh...we didnt leave Baku..we just went on a so called vacation..just until things settled down a little, then we went back to Baku....but I remember from then on we spent a lot of times hiding in the sellar. We didnt leave Baku until December of 88, which we then moved to Armenia only to come face to face with another big disaster a few days later.

Wow what rotten luck - out of the frying pan and into the fire as it were...so where were you when the Earthquake hit - and I imagine it must have been an incredibly horrible mess and most most sad....

[Inna]

Wow what rotten luck - out of the frying pan and into the fire as it were...so where were you when the Earthquake hit - and I imagine it must have been an incredibly horrible mess and most most sad....

It was rotten luck...but honestly we had better luck than many people.

Here is what I wrote in an old thread about the 1988 Earthquake:

My family and I moved to Leninakan (Gyumri) after fleeing Baku. We didnt actually move there, we were put there, it was one of the cities that had refugees from Baku. All in all, I was there, I dont remember anything, and my parents dont like talking about it much. All I ever got out of them was that there was a man that was working on the house that had been given to us by the government, he apparently saved my life as well as my sisters lives because he quickly grapped us and ran out of the house when he felt the building shake. The tragic part is he saved us, but my parents later found out that he lost his entire family (wife and kids) during the earthquake. That day was also the day my sisters were supposed to start school, but my mom wanted to wait till the next day so we could settle in, thank goodness she waited, because almost all the kids that died that day died because they were in school. Also on that day my dad started his first job, he told me that a few minutes before the earthquake hit he went outside to have a smoke, minutes later the enitre building collapsed and there were few surviviors. Thinking about this is really emotional because I know that I was there, although I dont remember it. Makes you realize that life is a blessing.

Luckily I dont remember any of it, I was only 4 years old when it happened.

[winoman]

Wow! wow! wow! Inna - what a story...and how incredibly lucky you are!(well at least it evened out quite a bit eh?) ...and your family...so sad about the man who saved you...and too bad you don't knwo who he is...perhaps you could adopt him (in a sense). Our family had done such a thing back when I was a child. They helped out and basically adopted a man into our family who was from my Grandfather's village near Divrik back in Anatolia...I used to call him and think of him as my Uncle and he always bought me the latest cool comic books whenever we would see him!

[Inna]

Wow! wow! wow! Inna - what a story...and how incredibly lucky you are!(well at least it evened out quite a bit eh?) ...and your family...so sad about the man who saved you...and too bad you don't knwo who he is...perhaps you could adopt him (in a sense). Our family had done such a thing back when I was a child. They helped out and basically adopted a man into our family who was from my Grandfather's village near Divrik back in Anatolia...I used to call him and think of him as my Uncle and he always bought me the latest cool comic books whenever we would see him!

yeah..that would have been nice to adopt him into our family..but he was an Armenian from Armenia..he lived there his whole life, I'm sure he had parents and siblings that took care of them...at the time we had just moved into a foreign country...yes we were Armenian, but we knew no one and my parents barely spoke the language. In fact, my dad was determined to leave Armenia (and go to Russia) after the earthquake...he didnt see much hope in our families future in Armenia. He only stayed because he met a man who persuaded him not to leave because so many Armenians were already leaving...he told my dad about a place in Echmiadzin that took in refugees so we moved there and lived there for 3 and a half yrs. I got to say though..as a child, living in Armenia was the best childhood a kid could have..so much adventure

[ArmoBarbi]

I just found out this morning in a casual conversation with my mother that I was in Armenia during the earthquake!

We also went on "vacation" during the events. It happened to be at the time of the earthquake. We were visiting with relatives in Yerevan and felt it. My mother said it wasnt anything bad, and they didnt even realize that it was from a serious earthquake until they heard about it hours later.

There is so much I grew up not knowing about my childhood. Its amazing.

[KotayKoskesh]

Wow... I never knew about this ... piss turc pezevenk ....is the only thing i can come up with to say sorry but this is terrible ......wow