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163-523: The province was heavily damaged during the 1988 Armenian earthquake . The province is served by the Stepanavan Airport . The name Lori (Լոռի) is of Armenian origin (from Armenian "quail"), first appeared in the 11th century when King David I Anhoghin founded the fortified city of Lori . The fortress-city became the capital of the Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget in 1065. The name Lori later spread through

326-566: A Boeing 727 loaded with 1,000 kg (2,300 lb) of medical supplies that were provided by the American Red Cross . Hammer, known for his decades of work with the Occidental Petroleum Corporation , had spoken with Gorbachev prior to leaving and was carrying with him $ 1 million in relief funds. Half of those funds were from World Vision International , a California-based relief and development umbrella organization and

489-464: A South Caucasus Railway express service that connects the city with Yerevan via Gyumri , and Tbilisi via Ayrum . In April 2012, a replacement bridge over the Zamarlu gorge just west of Vahagnadzor was opened in order to secure the safe ongoing use of the line to Ayrum, but not before the all station service between Gyumri and Ayrum was discontinued leaving the likes of Spitak and Alaverdi without

652-463: A border war over Lori. Lori was claimed by both countries after 1918, when both declared its independence from Russian empire. Initially, Georgia controlled Lori. After turning down Armenian ultimatum, Georgian forces were attacked by Armenians and pushed back to river Khrami. Georgians consolidated and counterattacked, pushing Armenian forces out of the contested area. In January 1919, the British brokered

815-548: A major energy blockade imposed by Azerbaijan due to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War , amid criticism of lack of training, political instability in the Caucasus region, and accusations that the plant was of inadequate design. Many buildings did not hold up to the shaking of the earthquake and those that did collapse often lacked any survival space, but lack of effective medical care and poor planning also contributed to

978-561: A bilingual Greco -Georgian colophon attached to the manuscript of the Vani Gospels . The idealization of Tamar was further accentuated by the events that took place under her immediate successors; within two decades of Tamar's death, the Khwarezmian and Mongol invasions brought Georgian ascendancy to an abrupt end. Later periods of national revival were too ephemeral to match the achievements of Tamar's reign. All of these contributed to

1141-479: A critical lack of separation as foreign planes made their way into the area. A second air transport incident occurred the following day at Yerevan (capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic ) when an Antonov An-12 from Yugoslavia crashed, killing all seven crew on board. The crash was blamed on the pilots' failure to properly adjust the altimeter following a miscommunication with

1304-484: A dominant figure in the Georgian historical pantheon . The construction of her reign as a "Golden age" began in the reign itself and Tamar became the focus of the era. Several medieval Georgian poets, including Shota Rustaveli, claimed Tamar as the inspiration for their works. A legend has it that Rustaveli was even consumed with love for the queen and ended his days in a monastery. A dramatic scene from Rustaveli's poem where

1467-526: A duo of French composers (including Charles Aznavour ) and a studio album that featured songs donated by mainstream rock bands was released from the Rock Aid Armenia effort by the British music industry. Beginning with late 1987 the Caucasus region was experiencing a surge in political turmoil with large and near constant demonstrations being held in the capital of Yerevan beginning in February 1988. For

1630-662: A friendly state in Georgia's immediate southwestern neighborhood, as well as by the dynastic solidarity to the dispossessed Komnenoi . Tamar sought to make use of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire and the Crusaders' defeat at the hands of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in order to gain Georgia's position on the international stage and to assume the traditional role of the Byzantine crown as

1793-402: A language with no grammatical genders , mep'e ("king") does not necessarily imply a masculine connotation and can be rendered as a "sovereign". The female equivalent of mep'e is dedop'ali ("queen"), which was applied to wives or other senior female relatives of kings. Tamar is occasionally called dedop'ali and dedop'alt’a dedop'ali in the Georgian chronicles and on some charters. Thus,

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1956-557: A large number of uniformly built row style apartment units, and the Soviets plan for rebuilding Spitak did not diverge from that approach. The Soviet's grid plan road scheme was found to not take into account the hillside at the new city's location, and the American plan included finer details of how commercial centers and government facilities were grouped together in an open and communal style. The Tsaghkadzor earthquake on October 20, 1827,

2119-677: A large number of visitors during the summer season. Many sanatoriums, hotels, resorts and spas serve the province, mainly around Vanadzor, Stepanavan, Alaverdi, Dsegh and along the rivers of Dzoraget and Deped. The Monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin are a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Lori has 3 nature protected areas, including the Gyulagarak Sanctuary, the Margahovit Sanctuary, and the Rhododendron caucasicum Sanctuary near Aghstev river. The Stepanavan Dendropark as well as

2282-409: A large part of the international effort. While transporting some of these supplies to the region, a Soviet aircraft carrying 9 crew members and 69 military personnel, and a transport plane from Yugoslavia , were both destroyed in separate incidents. In support of the relief effort, recording artists united to produce several music-related contributions for the victims of the quake. A song was produced by

2445-451: A more accurate crustal velocity value of 5.3 to 5.4 km/s. The epicenters of the recorded aftershocks formed a relatively narrow 50 km (31 mi) band. On the east end the events were shallow while on the western side, where the majority of the larger aftershocks were concentrated, the hypocenters were up to 14 km (8.7 mi) deep. The shocks at the southeastern segment indicated right-lateral strike-slip movement along

2608-456: A nearly vertical fault and may have been related to the Alavar fault. Moving westward closer to the central segments though, a transition of the fault type was becoming apparent, where an almost equal distribution of reverse fault mechanisms was observed as the strike-slip type. The east-central segment coincided with the surface breaks between Spitak and Gekhasar, while the west-central portion's break

2771-530: A passenger service. A new railway link between Vanadzor and Fioletovo (west of Dilijan ) has also been proposed. Stepanavan Airport , located 44 km (27 mi) north of Vanadzor, is the nearest airport to the city. The agriculture of Lori forms around 7.5% of the annual total agricultural product of Armenia. Approximately, 40% of the population in Lori are involved in agricultural activities, including farming and cattle-breeding. Almost 66.3% (2,511.5 km) of

2934-604: A peace agreement which left northern Lori as a neutral zone between the two countries. Once the British had left the region and the Caucasus as a whole, Armenian forces took control over the region. When Armenia was invaded by Turkish forces in November 1920, Georgia occupied the whole province, with permission by the Armenian government. Following Armenia's Sovietization in December 1920, Lori

3097-532: A plan to start on the local population's housing by the end of the month, though schools and factories were also on the list of facilities to be rebuilt. Deputy chairman of a city building and architecture council said that updated building codes like those in the United States were being drafted (along with a strict requirement that the new protocols be respected) and that the new buildings would be no taller than four stories and would be located away from areas with

3260-612: A population of 4,578, the village of Metsavan is the largest rural municipality of Lori. The majority of Lori are ethnic Armenians who belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church . The regulating body of the church is the Diocese of Gougark , headed by Archbishop Sebouh Chouldjian . The Saint Gregory of Narek Cathedral in Vanadzor is the seat of the diocese. However, small communities of ethnic Russian Molokans are mainly found in

3423-645: A protector of the Christians of the Middle East . Christian Georgian missionaries were active in the North Caucasus and the expatriate monastic communities were scattered throughout the Eastern Mediterranean . Tamar's chronicle praises her universal protection of Christianity and her support of churches and monasteries from Egypt to Bulgaria and Cyprus . The Georgian court was primarily concerned with

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3586-562: A result of the 1555 Peace of Amasya and became part of Persia's Kartli-Kakheti province . After Nader Shah 's murder in 1747, the Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti became independent and united into a single kingdom by 1762. In 1800–01, together with the Georgian provinces of Kartli and Kakheti, Lori and Tavush were annexed by the Russian Empire to become part of the Georgia Governorate . Lori became officially part of

3749-401: A role in the unusually high death toll. The earthquake death toll was by far the highest worldwide in the 1980s and third-highest worldwide in the period 1971–2003 (33 years). The engineers who scrutinized the damaged buildings and the rescue workers who had dismantled the buildings while extricating survivors ascribe both design shortcomings and improper construction methods for the failure of

3912-461: A similar fashion as saturated sands. The first well-documented case of liquefaction in gravelly sands was in regard to the 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in the United States. Several investigations of that event took place in the 1980s and early 1990s and the primary conclusions were that a critical condition for liquefaction to occur in that type of soil was the presence of a low permeable crust that did not allow pore water pressures to subside and that

4075-415: A sunbeam which shines through the window. Another myth, from the Georgian mountains, equates Tamar with the pagan deity of weather, Pirimze, who controls winter. Similarly, in the highland district of Pshavi , Tamar's image fused with a pagan goddess of healing and female fertility. While Tamar occasionally accompanied her army and is described as planning some campaigns, she was never directly involved in

4238-448: Is 380 meters in the valley of Debed in the northeast of the province. The main water resource of the province is the Debed river with its tributaries Dzoraget , Pambak and Martsaget. The climate is characterized with extremely cold snowy winters and mild summers. The annual precipitation level is between 600 and 700 mm (24 and 28 in). Excavations conducted in 1931 testify that

4401-420: Is a major, major problem. This is a massive undertaking, and foreign involvement is both a necessary and a complicating factor. We need foreign assistance—and there is no doubt about that—but our friends do not know the local conditions and propose things that cannot or should not be built in an earthquake-prone region." The Soviets and an American group of architects each devised separate outlines for rebuilding

4564-408: Is among the notable cultural structures in Lori. Lori is connected to other parts of Armenia through a railway, national highways and a network of regional roads. The M-3 and M-6 highways passing through the province, connect the capital Yerevan with the Georgian capital Tbilisi . The M-8 highway connects Lori with Tavush Province to the east The provincial centre Vanadzor has a railway station with

4727-566: Is home to 259 places of worship, of which 3 monasteries, as well as 36 churches and 23 chapels, are active. The 793 individuals of the Yazidi community are found in the southern villages of the province including Lermontovo and Lernantsk . Lori is also home to a tiny Greek community of 655 individuals who speak the Pontic dialect . Small Greek communities could be found in the towns of Alaverdi, Akhtala, Stepanavan, Noyemberyan and Vanadzor. The majority of

4890-477: Is identified as: The queen never achieved autocratic powers and the noble council continued to function. However, Tamar's own prestige and the expansion of patronq'moba – a Georgian version of feudalism – kept the more powerful dynastic princes from fragmenting the kingdom. This period marked the apex of Georgian feudalism. Attempts at transplanting feudal practices in the areas where they had previously been almost unknown did not pass without resistance. There

5053-454: Is in the heart of the Georgian. And in the Georgians' perception, this is not a grave, but a beautiful vase in which an unfading flower, the great Tamar, flourishes." An orthodox academic view still places Tamar's grave at Gelati, but a series of archaeological studies, beginning with Taqaishvili in 1920, has failed to locate it at the monastery. Over the centuries, Queen Tamar has emerged as

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5216-475: Is located in the Dzoraget village of Lori, on the shores of Debed River . It is in operation since on 15 November 1932 with the full installed capacity of 22.32 MW. As of 1980, the plant uses three generators with an installed capacity of 26.2 MW. The Dzoraget Hydro Power Plant is considered to be small size power plant. The mountainous nature, the mild summer climate and the green forests of Lori attract

5379-542: Is marked by frequent major earthquakes from the Aegean Sea , through Turkey and Iran, and into Afghanistan. Though the recurrence of seismic events in Armenia does not reach the high frequency that is seen in other segments of this zone, rapid crustal deformation there is associated with active thrust faulting and volcanic activity. Mount Ararat , a 5,137 m (16,854 ft) dormant volcano, lies 100 km (62 mi) to

5542-524: Is not recorded, but the queen's efforts seem to have been successful: Jacques de Vitry , who attained to the bishopric of Acre shortly after Tamar's death, gives further evidence of the Georgians’ presence in Jerusalem. He writes that the Georgians were – in contrast to the other Christian pilgrims – allowed a free passage into the city, with their banners unfurled. Ibn Šaddād furthermore claims that Tamar outbid

5705-507: Is operating since October 2016. It is intended to promote the business and technology environment in the entire region of Lori. The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), a non-profit NGO that is focused on child-centered development of rural Armenia, opened the first COAF SMART Center in Debet village of Lori in May 2018. The COAF SMART Center is a regional education hub designed to connect more villagers to

5868-654: The Arab invaders. At the end of the 9th century, most of the Gugark province became part of the newly established Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia . In 979, King Kiurike I founded the Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget under the rule of the Kiurikian dynasty and the protectorate of the Bagratid kings of Armenia . The capital of the kingdom was Matsnaberd (until 1065) and the Lori fortress . The Kiurikians ruled

6031-595: The Caspian Sea ], from Speri to Derbend , and all the Hither and the Thither Caucasus up to Khazaria and Scythia ." The royal title was correspondingly aggrandized. It now reflected not only Tamar's sway over the traditional subdivisions of the Georgian realm, but also included new components, emphasizing the Georgian crown's hegemony over the neighboring lands. Thus, on the coins and charters issued in her name, Tamar

6194-584: The Catholicos-Patriarch Michael IV was crucial for legitimizing Tamar's succession to the throne. However, the young queen was forced into making significant concessions to the aristocracy. She had to reward the Catholicos-Patriarch Michael's support by making him a chancellor , thus placing him at the top of both the clerical and secular hierarchies. Tamar was also pressured into dismissing her father's appointees, among them

6357-660: The Eldiguzid campaign of Tamar of Georgia , the brothers Mkhargrzeli laid waste to Ardabil – according to the Georgian and Armenian annals – as a revenge for the local Muslim ruler's attack on Ani and his massacre of the city's Christian population. In a great final burst, the brothers led an army marshaled throughout Tamar's possessions and vassal territories in a march, through Nakhchivan and Julfa , to Marand , Tabriz , and Qazvin in northwest Iran , pillaging several settlements on their way. Georgians reached countries where nobody had heard of either their name or existence. Among

6520-515: The Gelati Monastery , a family burial ground of the Georgian royal dynasty. The traditional scholarly opinion is that Tamar died in 1213, although there are several indications that she might have died earlier, in 1207 or 1210. In later times, a number of legends emerged about Tamar's place of burial. One of them has it that Tamar was buried in a secret niche at the Gelati monastery so as to prevent

6683-769: The Georgian Orthodox Church as the Holy Righteous Queen Tamar (წმიდა კეთილმსახური მეფე თამარი, ts'mida k'etilmsakhuri mepe tamari ; also venerated as "Right-believing Tamara"), with her feast day commemorated on 1 May (of the Julian Calendar , which equates to 14 May on the Gregorian Calendar ) and on Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. The Antiochian Orthodox observe the feast of St Tamara on 22 April. The chart below shows

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6846-483: The Gugark , Tashir , Spitak , Stepanavan , and Tumanyan districts in 1930–1995) had a population of 229,459. 116,180 or 50.63% of which was urban, distributed in the cities of Alaverdi (26,930), Kirovakan (75,616), Spitak (3,740) and Stepanavan (9,894), and 113,279 or 49.37% were rural, distributed in the districts of Gugark (20,368), Tashir (30,645), Spitak (8,613), Stepanavan (17,474), and Tumanyan (36,179). According to

7009-544: The Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia . Historically, the territories of modern-day Lori are associated with the cantons of Tashir , Boghnopor and Dzorapor of Gugark province of Ancient Armenia. Lori is a mountainous region, dominated by the ranges of Javakheti , Bazum, Pambak, Gugark, Halab and Somkheti. The highest point of the province is Mount Achkasar of the Javakheti range with a height of 3196 meters. The lowest point

7172-568: The Mongol attacks within two decades after Tamar's death. Tamar was married twice, her first union being, from 1185 to 1187, to the prince Yuri of the Grand Principality of Vladimir , whom she divorced and expelled from the country, defeating his subsequent coup attempts. For her second husband Tamar chose, in 1191, the Alan prince David Soslan , by whom she had two children, George and Rusudan ,

7335-593: The Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age . A member of the Bagrationi dynasty , her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title mepe (" king "), afforded to Tamar in the medieval Georgian sources. Tamar was proclaimed heir and co-ruler by her reigning father George III in 1178, but she faced significant opposition from

7498-746: The Saracens . He was carrying, the report said, the remains of his mother, the "powerful queen Tamar" ( regina potentissima Thamar ), who had been unable to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in her lifetime and had bequeathed her body to be buried near the Holy Sepulchre . In the 20th century, the quest for Tamar's grave became a subject of scholarly research, as well as the focus of broader public interest. The Georgian writer Grigol Robakidze wrote in his 1918 essay on Tamar: "Thus far, nobody knows where Tamar's grave is. She belongs to everyone and to no one: her grave

7661-516: The Seljuk Empire such as the Eldiguzids , Shirvanshahs , and Ahlatshahs , had slowed down the dynamic of the Georgians achieved during the reigns of Tamar's great-grandfather, David IV , and her father, George III. However, the Georgians became again active under Tamar, more prominently in the second decade of her rule. Early in the 1190s, the Georgian government began to interfere in the affairs of

7824-578: The Soviet Union ) which is vulnerable to large and destructive earthquakes and is part of a larger active seismic belt that stretches from the Alps to the Himalayas. Activity in the area is associated with tectonic plate boundary interaction and the source of the event was slip on a thrust fault just to the north of Spitak. The complex incident ruptured multiple faults, with a strike-slip event occurring shortly after

7987-790: The Sumgait Pogrom arrived from Azerbaijan. The source of the event was a fault rupture 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of the Caucasus Mountains , a mountain range that has been produced by the convergence of the Arabian and the Eurasian tectonic plates. The range is situated along an active seismic belt that stretches from the Alps in southern Europe to the Himalayas in Asia. The seismicity along this belt

8150-798: The Yaghdan village is Greek. As a result of the administrative reforms in November 2017, Lori is currently divided into 57 municipal communities ( hamaynkner ), of which 7 are urban and 50 are rural: During the recent years, many rural settlements in Lori became abandoned, including the villages of Gyulludara , Kizilshafak and Kizkala . Between the 11th and 13th centuries, the monasteries of Haghpat , Sanahin , Kobayr and Bardzrakash in Dsegh served as centers of Armenian culture, theology and science. Scholars such as Hovhannes Imastaser , Grigor Tuteordi, Davit Kobayretsi, Grigor Magistros worked in these monasteries. The House-museum of Hovhannes Tumanyan in Dsegh

8313-545: The Yerevan State University and National Polytechnic University of Armenia are also operating in the city. The State College of Alaverdi offers an opportunity in pedagogical studies with a duration of two years, while the Tumanyan branch of the "Northern University" offers degrees in nursing and dental prosthesis. As of the 2015–16 educational year, Lori was home to 162 schools. The Vanadzor Technological Center

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8476-481: The visas were available. With the hospitals destroyed and their limited knowledge of the care requirements, the Soviets were not well-equipped to deal with the cases of crush syndrome. Author and professor of geopolitics Pierre Verluise detailed in his 1995 book Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake , how a French doctor and director of a Leninakan hospital described that he had seen one hundred victims suffering from

8639-508: The 13th province of Greater Armenia. In the course of the 4th century, the region was ruled by members of the House of Mihran . Following the partition of Armenia in 387 between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Persia , and the subsequent collapse of Arsacid Armenia in 428, Eastern Armenia including Gugark province became under the rule of Sassanid Persia. In 658, Armenia was conquered by

8802-426: The 18th-century Georgian scholar Prince Vakhushti ascribes descent from the early 11th-century Georgian king George I . David, a capable military commander, became Tamar's major supporter and was instrumental in defeating the rebellious nobles who rallied behind Yuri. Tamar and David had two children. In 1192 or 1194, the queen gave birth to a son, George-Lasha, the future king George IV . The daughter, Rusudan ,

8965-473: The 2011 official census, Lori has a population of 235,537 (111,675 men and 123,862 women), forming around 7.8% of the entire population of Armenia. The urban population is 137,784 (58.5%) and the rural is 97,753 (41.5%). The province has 8 urban and 105 rural communities. The largest urban community is the provincial center of Vanadzor, with a population of 86,199. The other urban centres are Alaverdi, Stepanavan, Spitak, Shamlugh, Tashir, Akhtala and Tumanyan. With

9128-440: The Byzantine emperor in her efforts to obtain the relics of the True Cross , offering 200,000 gold pieces to Saladin who had taken the relics as booty at the Battle of Hattin – to no avail, however. Georgia's political and cultural exploits of Tamar's epoch were rooted in a long and complex past. Tamar owed her accomplishments most immediately to the reforms of her great-grandfather David IV (r. 1089–1125) and, more remotely, to

9291-471: The Eldiguzids and of the Shirvanshahs, aiding rivaling local princes and reducing Shirvan to a tributary state. The Eldiguzid atabeg Abu Bakr attempted to stem the Georgian advance, but suffered a defeat at the hands of David Soslan at the Battle of Shamkor and lost his capital to a Georgian protégé in 1195. Although Abu Bakr was able to resume his reign a year later, the Eldiguzids were only barely able to contain further Georgian forays. The question of

9454-457: The Georgian court. According to Tamar's historian, the aim of the Georgian expedition to Trebizond was to punish the Byzantine emperor Alexios IV Angelos (r. 1203–1204) for his confiscation of a shipment of money from the Georgian queen to the monasteries of Antioch and Mount Athos . However, Tamar's Pontic endeavor can better be explained by her desire to take advantage of the Western European Fourth Crusade against Constantinople to set up

9617-417: The Georgian queen as a destructive seductress had no apparent historical background, it has been influential enough to raise the issue of Tamar's sexuality, a question that was given some prominence by the 19th-century European authors. Knut Hamsun 's 1903 play Queen Tamara was less successful; the theatre critics saw in it "a modern woman dressed in a medieval costume" and read the play as "a commentary on

9780-451: The Orient and the characteristics of women in it. The Tyrolean writer Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer described Tamar as a "Caucasian Semiramis ". Fascinated by the " exotic " Caucasus, the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov wrote the romantic poem Tamara ( Russian : Тамара ; 1841) in which he utilized the old Georgian legend about a siren -like mountainous princess whom the poet gave the name of Queen Tamar. Although Lermontov's depiction of

9943-434: The Ottoman Turkish forces moved towards Yerevan and Karakilisa (now Vanadzor ). On 25 May 1918, the Armenians led by Garegin Nzhdeh fought against the Turkish forces led by Wehib Pasha , at the vicinity of Karakilisa. On 28 May 1918, the Turks retreated from Karakalisa , Abaran and Sardarabad , paving way towards the declaration of the Republic of Armenia on the same day. In late 1918, Armenia and Georgia fought

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10106-405: The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In 2018, a Georgian court banned the sale of condoms from the company Aiisa, which depicted Tamar. She is a playable leader of Georgia in the 4X video game Civilization VI , in the Rise and Fall expansion. She also has a dedicated campaign in Age of Empires II introduced with the Mountain Royals expansion. Tamar has been canonized by

10269-443: The Russian Empire at the Treaty of Gulistan signed on 1 January 1813, between Imperial Russia and Qajar Persia , following the Russo-Persian War of 1804–13 . In 1862, Lori was transferred into the jurisdiction of the Tiflis Governorate . In 1880, Lori became part of the Borchali uyezd of the Tiflis Governorate. In the early 20th century, Lori was mostly populated by Armenians, with several Russian and Greek villages. In May 1918,

10432-420: The Sovereigns – which became the primary sources of Tamar's sanctification in Georgian literature. The chroniclers exalt her as a "protector of the widowed" and "the thrice blessed", and place a particular emphasis on Tamar's virtues as a woman: beauty, humility, love of mercy, fidelity, and purity. Although Tamar was canonized by the Georgian church much later, she was even named as a saint in her lifetime in

10595-406: The Soviet relief effort after the earthquake was augmented by the largest foreign cooperation since World War II. That deluge of western aid was a byproduct of the disaster that may have had a positive effect on Soviet Union–United States relations . The cost of rebuilding would be a severe obstacle for Perestroika , Gorbachev's plan for economic restructuring. Another adverse effect of the disaster

10758-411: The US research team verified the presence of soil amplification effects when pronounced differences in readings were observed when compared with nearby rock sites. Uneven distribution of the seismic energy may have also contributed to the fluctuation in damage. In late December the last of the survivors that were able to be extricated were pulled from the fallen buildings, rescue operations ceased, and

10921-441: The United States were also significant. Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca arranged for a fund drive, and in Chicago (one of five major Armenian population centers in the US) the community raised $ 800,000 and donated 9,000 kilograms (20,000 lb) of supplies. American businessman and philanthropist Armand Hammer , well known to the Soviet Union for his financial pursuits and humanitarian ties, left Los Angeles for Armenia on board

11084-488: The Vanadzor Botanical Garden are major destinations for ecotourism lovers. Gugark was one of the major educational centres throughout the history. The historic University of Sanahin opened in 966 AD by the efforts of the Bagratuni queen Khosrovanush, was located in the area of modern-day Sanahin . Currently, Vanadzor has 2 universities: the " Vanadzor State University named after Hovhannes Tumanyan", and "Mkhitar Gosh Armenian-Russian International University". Branches of

11247-415: The air traffic controllers. A group of French recording artists and actors came together with the French writer and composer Charles Aznavour to record the 1989 song " Pour toi Arménie " (For you Armenia). Aznavour, together with Armenian-French composer Georges Garvarentz , formed a foundation called "Aznavour for Armenia" and composed the song as a call for help for the Armenians. It took six weeks from

11410-400: The appreciation of the Armenian people for assistance from the U.S. was erected in Washington, D.C. in 1990. Gorbachev set aside 5 billion rubles (about US$ 8 billion) in funds for a start on what would likely be a recovery cost that would exceed the cleanup bill for the 1986 nuclear and radiation accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. While foreign doctors did assist with the Chernobyl incident,

11573-409: The aristocracy upon her ascension to full ruling powers after George's death. Tamar was successful in neutralizing this opposition and embarked on an energetic foreign policy aided by the decline of the hostile Seljuk Turks . Relying on a powerful military elite , Tamar was able to build on the successes of her predecessors to consolidate an empire which dominated the Caucasus until its collapse under

11736-417: The assessment method and associated standard penetration test values used with sandy soils also applied to gravelly soils. Three locations between Spitak and Nalband (to the west) that were within several kilometers of the fault were examined for ground disturbances and each site was scrutinized for the effects of liquefaction. The first site was on the highway that linked the three most damaged cities and

11899-475: The basement for 35 days before their rescue in January, but this turned out to be a hoax. The area where Armenia lies is of interest to seismologists and geologists because of the relatively early stage of continental collision occurring there and because the earthquake's strong aftershock sequence and significant surface faulting presented scientists with an environment to study reverse faulting. Twelve days after

12062-552: The buildings. The Soviets had modified their construction style to accommodate the known seismic risk in the area, but they acknowledged to the team that many of the buildings were not built to withstand an earthquake of that magnitude. An engineer with the team stated that the regulations for the area mandated that buildings be required to stand up against events measuring seven or eight on the twelve-degree Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale . The earthquake's effects were assessed at ten on that seismic scale . The three cities closest to

12225-455: The capacity to handle the critical medical needs in the region. The Soviet news media and government officials soon began to discuss the apparent substandard construction styles that had caused so many of Armenia's buildings to collapse. Gorbachev, in a TV interview several weeks after his expedited return from New York City , said that the concrete blocks had been built with more than enough sand but too little concrete, and suggested that

12388-469: The center of power. For six years, Tamar was a co-ruler with her father upon whose death, in 1184, Tamar continued as the sole monarch and was crowned a second time at the Gelati cathedral near Kutaisi , western Georgia. She inherited a relatively strong kingdom, but the centrifugal tendencies fostered by the great nobles were far from being quelled. There was considerable opposition to Tamar's succession; this

12551-477: The city. 1988 Armenian earthquake The 1988 Armenian earthquake , also known as the Spitak earthquake ( Armenian : Սպիտակի երկրաշարժ , romanized :  Spitaki yerkrasharzh ), occurred on December 7 at 11:41 local time with a surface-wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X ( Devastating ). The shock occurred in the northern region of Armenia (then Armenian SSR , as part of

12714-524: The clans of Mkhargrdzeli and Abulasan . The faction of the Abulasan won, the choice was approved by Tamar's aunt Rusudan and council of feudal lords. Their choice fell on Yuri , son of the murdered prince Andrei I Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal , who later lived as a refugee among the Kipchaks of the North Caucasus . They called an influential person in the kingdom, the great merchant Zankan Zorababeli . He

12877-413: The cleanup began, beginning with the destruction of buildings that were too heavily damaged to be repaired. Six friends were in the basement of a nine-story building relocating barrels when it came down around them on December 7. Their injuries were minor, but one person suffered a broken arm. They supposedly sustained themselves on the food supplies—fruit salad, pickles, and smoked ham—that were available in

13040-516: The concrete had been stolen. Leonid Bibin , deputy chairman of the state building committee, stated that many newer homes collapsed as well and that he was beginning an investigation into the matter and that criminal charges would be brought. The official communist party newspaper Pravda said that poor construction, like other issues of neglect in the Soviet system, could be blamed on the Era of Stagnation from

13203-468: The constable Kubasar , a Georgian Kipchak of ignoble birth, who had helped George III in his crackdown on the defiant nobility. One of the few untitled servitors of George III to escape this fate was the treasurer Qutlu Arslan who now led a group of nobles and wealthy citizens in a struggle to limit the royal authority by creating a new council, karavi , whose members would alone deliberate and decide policy. This attempt at "feudal constitutionalism "

13366-686: The country's intimate trade connections with the Middle East is evidenced on contemporary Georgian coinage, whose legends were composed in Georgian and Arabic . A series of coins minted in circa 1200 in the name of Queen Tamar depicted a local variant of the Byzantine obverse and an Arabic inscription on the reverse proclaiming Tamar as the "Champion of the Messiah". The contemporary Georgian chronicles enshrined Christian morality and patristic literature continued to flourish, but it had, by that time, lost its earlier dominant position to secular literature, which

13529-423: The creation of the song to completion of the disc and with almost two million copies sold, the foundation was able to build 47 schools and three orphanages for the victims of the disaster. Rock Aid Armenia , also known in earlier stages as Live Aid Armenia, was a humanitarian effort by the British music industry to raise money to help those affected by the earthquake. A monument, Armenian Earthquake , expressing

13692-450: The cult of Tamar which blurred the distinction between the idealized queen and the real personality. In popular memory, Tamar's image has acquired a legendary and romantic façade. A diverse set of folk songs, poems and tales illustrate her as an ideal ruler, a holy woman onto whom certain attributes of pagan deities and Christian saints were sometimes projected. For example, in an old Ossetian legend, Queen Tamar conceives her son through

13855-606: The disaster in Leninakan and Spitak, with much of Europe sending cargo aircraft loaded with medical supplies, rescue equipment, and trained personnel to assist in the recovery, and even more reinforcement coming in from Latin America and the Far East. Mikhail Gorbachev was in New York on his first day of visits with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush at the time of the earthquake, and once

14018-576: The earthquake. Seventy-eight people were killed while on a relief mission to Leninakan when a Soviet Ilyushin Il-76 crashed on approach to the airport there. Nine crew and 69 military personnel were on board the plane that struck a helicopter in foggy conditions at the small airport that was overrun with rescue flights. In the days following the earthquake, the normally quiet airstrip was receiving up to 180 flights per day carrying food, medical supplies, and disaster management experts. Those who were killed on

14181-608: The emir of Kars (vassal of the Saltukids in Erzurum), the Ahlatshahs, and the emirs of Erzurum and Erzincan . In 1206, the Georgian army, under the command of David Soslan , captured Kars and other fortresses and strongholds along the Araxes . This campaign was evidently started because the ruler of Erzerum refused to submit to Georgia. The emir of Kars requested aid from the Ahlatshahs, but

14344-458: The end of February 1989) of continued monitoring with a reduced capacity of twenty units. The instrumentation included ten smoked paper analog seismometers that were configured to allow for 48 hours of continuous single-component data recording. Six digital recorders built by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg were also used to record signals from three-component seismometers. Eight of

14507-421: The era of Leonid Brezhnev . A team of earthquake and engineering experts from the United States spent a period of time in Armenia in December 1988 and January 1989. The group, including a structural engineer who specialized in seismic-resistant designs, agreed that building inadequacies were the primary reason why the strong (but not huge) earthquake was so damaging, although the freezing temperatures also played

14670-432: The exhausted Armenian workers who then returned to Yerevan. Japan sent a monetary gift of $ 9 million while Italy had plans to build a prefabricated village for the victims, and West Germany offered to send more than a dozen heavy cranes. The Americans donated generously as well, with Washington dispatching eight official planeloads of official relief aid plus a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter from Italy. Private donations from

14833-503: The failed embankment. A second site that was close to the fault, also near the Pambak river and with similar soil deposits, did not experience liquefaction, though it would have experienced the same high peak ground accelerations as the failed highway embankment. Avant-garde musician Pierre Schaeffer led a 498-member French rescue team to look for survivors in Leninakan, and worked there until all foreign personnel were asked to leave after

14996-615: The fault rupture experienced different levels of damage. Both Leninakan and Kirovakan were roughly equidistant from the shock, yet Leninakan had greater damage. This may be explained by a 300–400 m (980–1,310 ft) sedimentary layer that is present beneath the city. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute 's team compared building damage in each city and observed similar results when comparing stone buildings four stories or less in height, but for taller frame-stone buildings, 62% were destroyed at Leninakan while only 23% collapsed at Kirovakan. While on-site during aftershock monitoring,

15159-518: The fifteen months prior to the earthquake and at times up to hundreds of thousands of protesters, represented by the Karabakh Committee , were demanding both democracy and the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh (administered by Soviet Azerbaijan but disputed autonomous territory with a 76% Armenian majority and a 23% Azerbaijani minority in 1989) in the mountains of the Karabakh region. The unrest and

15322-699: The fighting. Yet, the memory of the military victories of her reign contributed to Tamar's other popular image, that of a model warrior-queen. It also echoed in the Tale of Queen Dinara , a popular 16th-century Russian story about a fictional Georgian queen fighting against the Persians . Tsar of All the Russias Ivan the Terrible before the seizure of Kazan encouraged his army by the examples of Tamar's battles by describing her as "the most wise Queen of Iberia , endowed with

15485-445: The first several days of the expedition and at the end of the recording period in February the equipment was still picking up around 100 shocks per day. The team then set out to determine an accurate velocity model using data from the more accurate telemetry network. The soviet geophysicists detonated 100 kilograms of TNT in a hole drilled near the mainshock epicenter and the resulting shock waves were detected and used to help pinpoint

15648-502: The grave from being profaned by her enemies. Another version suggests that Tamar's remains were reburied in a remote location, possibly in the Holy Land. The French knight Guillaume de Bois, in a letter dated from the early 13th century, written in Palestine and addressed to the bishop of Besançon , claimed that he had heard that the king of the Georgians was heading towards Jerusalem with a huge army and had already conquered many cities of

15811-523: The highest seismic risk . Other officials decided that the town would be relocated several kilometers to the southwest. As of July 1989, about $ 500 million in donations had been delivered to the Armenians from 113 countries. Most of those funds went into the initial relief work and medical care plus the beginning portion of the rebuilding phase. Yuri S. Mkhitarian, an Armenian State Building Committee official, gave an updated damage report that included some of

15974-452: The initiation of the mainshock. Between 25,000 and 50,000 were killed and up to 130,000 were injured. Seismologists thoroughly studied the effects of the Spitak event, including the mainshock and aftershock fault rupture mechanisms, and were on site setting up temporary seismometers before the end of 1988. Earthquake engineering experts scrutinized building construction styles and found fault in

16137-461: The intelligence and courage of a man". Much of the modern perception of Queen Tamar was shaped under the influence of 19th-century Romanticism and growing nationalism among Georgian intellectuals of that time. In the Russian and Western literatures of the 19th century, Georgia was perceived as having "oriental tendencies", thus the image of Queen Tamar reflected some of these Western conceptions of

16300-486: The kingdom until 1118 when Tashir-Dzoraget became part of the Kingdom of Georgia . The Seljuks invaded the region in the early 12th century, but their rule did not last long and in 1118–1122 the Georgian king David the Builder conquered Lori and granted the rule to the House of Orbeli . The Orbeli's revolted unsuccessfully in 1177, after which a Kipchak named Kubasar was appointed spasalari of Lori. Later in 1185,

16463-549: The latter was unable to respond, it was soon taken over by the Ayyubid Sultanate in 1207. By 1209 Georgia challenged Ayyubid rule in eastern Anatolia and led a liberation war for south Armenia. The Georgian army besieged Khlat . In response Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil I assembled and personally led a large Muslim army that included the emirs of Homs , Hama , and Baalbek as well as contingents from other Ayyubid principalities to support al-Awhad , emir of Jazira . During

16626-521: The length with the southwest end reaching 1.6 m (5.2 ft). During the earthquake, the northeast-facing side of the Spitak section rode up and over the southwest-facing side. Waveform modeling established that the faulting originated at a depth of 5 km (3.1 mi) with the epicenter on the Alavar thrust fault on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus mountains north of Mount Aragats . The mainshock produced surface rupture and propagated to

16789-529: The liberation of Armenia remained of prime importance in Georgia's foreign policy. Tamar's armies led by two Armenian generals, Zakare and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli (Zakarian), overran fortresses and cities towards the Ararat Plain , reclaiming one after another fortresses and districts from local Muslim rulers. Alarmed by the Georgian successes, Süleymanshah II , the resurgent Seljuqid sultan of Rûm , rallied his vassal emirs and marched against Georgia, but his camp

16952-512: The mainshock a French-Soviet team installed a temporary seismic network in the epicentral area to record aftershock activity (a separate expedition from the United States also visited the site). The initial portion of work included nearly a full week setting up the seismometers and optimizing their operation and, with that complete, two full weeks of continuous operation was then completed with twenty six seismometers covering an area over 1,500 km . The final stage concluded with seven weeks (through

17115-461: The new woman of the 1890s." Russian conductor Mily Balakirev composed a symphonic poem named " Tamara ". In Georgian literature, Tamar was also romanticized, but very differently from the Russian and Western European view. The Georgian romanticists followed a medieval tradition in Tamar's portrayal as a gentle, saintly woman who ruled a country permanently at war. This sentiment was further inspired by

17278-400: The noble council to approve her to divorce Yuri, who was accused of addiction to drunkenness and " sodomy " and was sent off to Constantinople . Assisted by several Georgian aristocrats anxious to check Tamar's growing power, Yuri made two coup attempts, but failed and went off to obscurity after 1191. The queen chose her second husband herself. He was David Soslan , an Alan prince, to whom

17441-558: The north to Erzurum in the south, and from the Zygii in the northwest to the vicinity of Ganja in the southeast, forming a pan-Caucasian empire, with the loyal Zachariad regime in northern and central Armenia, Shirvan as a vassal and Trebizond as an ally. A contemporary Georgian historian extols Tamar as the master of the lands "from the Sea of Pontus [i.e., the Black Sea ] to the Sea of Gurgan [i.e.,

17604-552: The open even while there was an abundance of tents available. Health minister Yevgeniy Chazov urged the creation of a governmental body to assist with disaster management. Baxter International , an American health care company with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois , designed and built a flying medical lab set up with 20 dialysis machines to be used with victims suffering from crush syndrome (trauma associated with building collapses), but were unable to get started for four days until

17767-618: The opposition movement began in September 1988 with negotiations between the Karabakh Committee and Gorbachev taking place throughout most of 1989. The relationship between the Soviet authorities and the Armenian society took a turn for the worse in March and the developments climaxed in November when a state of emergency was declared, along with a nighttime curfew, and a mass movement of up to 50,000 Armenians fleeing ethnic violence in events such as

17930-668: The other half were his own personal donation. The flight also carried Robert Seiple (president of World Vision) and a UCLA doctor who had worked in the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake . Red tape inevitably held up some of the rescue efforts and criticism of the perceived flawed processes soon followed. The newspaper Pravda complained that the lack of cranes meant that "seconds and hours are being lost—that means lives." The paper also stated that too many Soviet personnel were giving advice and not enough people were actually searching. The daily newspaper Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya noted that there were families living out in

18093-507: The outlying communities away from the population centers stating that 342 villages were damaged and another 58 were destroyed. The negative effect the earthquake had on the economy of Armenia was apparent. Mkhitarian said that 130 factories were destroyed and 170,000 people were out of work. Officials acknowledged that the work to complete the rebuilding may take up to five years or longer, a supposition that more than doubled Gorbachev's estimate of two years. At that time 20 projects had completed

18256-509: The plan to bulldoze what was left of the ruins was formulated. The total number of volunteer rescue personnel in Leninakan totalled 2,000, with teams from Austria, Canada, Switzerland, the United States, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Nikolai Ryzhkov , the then Chairman of the Council of Ministers , was awarded the National Hero of Armenia for his work in rebuilding the city following

18419-469: The plane were planning to join an estimated 20,000 soldiers and 85,000 civil defense workers in rescue efforts by searching for survivors, supplying food and water, and setting up sanitation facilities in the region. At the Yerevan airport, western pilots reported a breakdown in air traffic control communications, with flight controllers not delivering the necessary flight navigation instructions, allowing for

18582-558: The planning process and some had been approved and construction started. In Leninakan, there was a need for 18 new hospitals, 12 of which could be funded with the assistance of the republics of the Soviet Union , but foreign help would be required to build six additional facilities. Boris Karapetyan, director of earthquake studies at the Yerevan Polytechnical Institute, said of the difficult rebuilding process "Coordination

18745-437: The poorly constructed apartments and other buildings that were built during the Era of Stagnation under the rule of Leonid Brezhnev . The cities of Spitak , Leninakan ( Gyumri ) and Kirovakan ( Vanadzor ) were greatly affected with large losses of life and devastating effects to buildings and other structures. A number of the smaller outlying villages away from the larger population centers were also severely affected. Despite

18908-434: The pretender's father-in-law, the amirspasalar ("high constable") Ivane II Orbeli , to weaken the crown. George III was able to crush the revolt and embarked on a crackdown campaign on the defiant aristocratic clans; Ivane Orbeli was put to death and the surviving members of his family were driven out of Georgia. Demna, castrated and blinded on his uncle's order, did not survive the mutilation and soon died in prison. Once

19071-400: The prince Yuri of the Grand Principality of Vladimir has become a subject of two resonant prose works in modern Georgia. Shalva Dadiani 's play, originally entitled The Unfortunate Russian (უბედური რუსი; 1916–1926), was attacked by Soviet critics for distorting the "centuries-long friendship of the Russian and Georgian peoples." Under Communist Party pressure, Dadiani had to revise both

19234-625: The programs and opportunities offered by COAF and bring together different regions through hosting organization-wide events. It offers a wide array of resources for children and their families through technologically advanced classrooms and labs. The organization claims to ensure access to all communities by providing transportation to and from villages. Football , handball and winter sports are popular in Lori. There are football stadiums in Vanadzor, Alaverdi, Akhtala and Tumanyan. Lori Vanadzor , FC Vanadzor , Debed FC and FC Akhtala had represented

19397-506: The protection of the Georgian monastic centers in the Holy Land . By the 12th century, eight Georgian monasteries were listed in Jerusalem . Saladin's biographer, Bahā' ad-Dīn ibn Šaddād , reports that after the Ayyubid conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, Tamar sent envoys to the sultan to request that the confiscated possessions of the Georgian monasteries in Jerusalem be returned. Saladin's response

19560-598: The province became ruled by the Mkhargdzeli dynasty after Queen Tamar of Georgia appointed the Sargis Mkhargrdzeli as its governor. However, the region was devastated by the Mongol invasion of 1236 , and the Zakarian dynasty declined by the 2nd half of the 14th century. After fall of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1490, Lori remained part of Kingdom of Kartli until the 16th century. Lori was annexed by Safavid Persia as

19723-470: The province in the domestic football competitions. However, they were all dissolved due to financial difficulties. The FFA Vanadzor Football Academy opened its doors on 29 October 2016. In 2017 the newly founded Lori FC made its debut in the Armenian First League , representing the city of Vanadzor. Vanadzor is one of the prominent centers for winter sports in Armenia with ski facilities near

19886-475: The queen suddenly fell ill when discussing state affairs with her ministers at the Nacharmagevi castle near the town of Gori , an illness her chronicle attributes to the toll years of military campaigns had on her body. She was transported to Tbilisi and later to the nearby castle of Agarani where Tamar died and was mourned by her subjects. Her remains were transferred to the cathedral of Mtskheta and later to

20049-419: The rebellion was suppressed and the pretender eliminated, George went ahead to co-opt Tamar into government with him and crowned her as co-ruler in 1178. By doing so, the king attempted to preempt any dispute after his death and legitimize his line on the throne of Georgia. At the same time, he raised men from the Kipchaks as well as from the gentry and unranked classes to keep the dynastic aristocracy away from

20212-425: The rediscovery of a contemporary, 13th-century wall painting of Tamar in the then-ruined Betania Monastery , which was uncovered and restored by Prince Grigory Gagarin in the 1840s. The fresco became a source of numerous engravings circulating in Georgia at that time and inspired the poet Grigol Orbeliani to dedicate a romantic poem to it. Furthermore, the Georgian literati, reacting to Russian rule in Georgia and

20375-399: The region and replaced the original name of Tashir. Situated at the north of modern-day Armenia, Lori covers an area of 3,789 square kilometres (1,463 sq mi) (12.7% of total area of Armenia). It is bordered by Tavush Province from the east, Kotayk Province from the southeast, Aragatsotn Province from the southwest and Shirak Province from the west. The province is bordered by

20538-528: The region of modern-day Lori was most probably settled during the 1st half of the 2nd millennium BC. Later, the region became part of the Urartu Kingdom between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. After the Achaemenid invasion, the region became part of the 18th Satrapy of Persia . With the establishment of the Kingdom of Armenia in 331 BC, the region became part of the kingdom within the historic Gugark province,

20701-455: The remarkable events of Tamar's reign was the foundation of the Empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea coast in 1204. This state was established by Alexios I Megas Komnenos (r. 1204–1222) and his brother, David , in the northeastern Pontic provinces of the crumbling Byzantine Empire with the aid of Georgian troops. Alexios and David, Tamar's relatives, were fugitive Byzantine princes raised at

20864-560: The saying that "the peasants were like nobles, the nobles like princes, and the princes like kings." With this prosperity came an outburst of the distinct Georgian culture, emerging from the amalgam of Christian , secular, as well as Byzantine and Iranian influences. Despite this, the Georgians continued to identify with the Byzantine West, rather than Islamic East, with the Georgian monarchy seeking to underscore its association with Christianity and present its position as God-given . It

21027-489: The scale of the disaster was realized, a quick departure was made back to Armenia, with the Kremlin formally asking for American help. Washington immediately responded with offers of doctors, medical equipment, and rescue teams, and by the first weekend the first US plane arrived in Yerevan with search and rescue teams and detection dogs . The French arrived in Armenia in the late evening on Friday, December 9, and relieved

21190-498: The seasoned King Rostevan crowns his daughter Tinatin is an allegory to George III's co-option of Tamar. Rustaveli comments on this: "A lion cub is just as good, be it female or male". The queen became a subject of several contemporary panegyrics , such as Chakhrukhadze 's Tamariani and Ioane Shavteli 's Abdul-Mesia . She was eulogized in the chronicles, most notably in the two accounts centered on her reign – The Life of Tamar, Queen of Queens and The Histories and Eulogies of

21353-415: The second king of Israel . Tamar's youth coincided with a major upheaval in Georgia; in 1177, her father, George III, was confronted by a rebellious faction of nobles. The rebels intended to dethrone George in favor of the king's fraternal nephew, Demna , who was considered by many to be a legitimate royal heir of his murdered father, David V . Demna's cause was little but a pretext for the nobles, led by

21516-544: The selected sites were equipped with a vertical component velocity transducer along with an FM telemetry link to transfer data back to a central station where a three-component unit was stationed. There the seismic signals were digitized, along with an internal time signal and an external DCF77 time signal, and stored on magnetic tape . The tapes were then played back and the P wave and S wave arrival times were used to automatically determine aftershock locations. Approximately two hundred aftershocks were recorded each day for

21679-594: The siege, Georgian general Ivane Mkhargrdzeli accidentally fell into the hands of the al-Awhad on the outskirts of Ahlat. Using Ivane as a bargaining chip, al-Awhad agreed to release him in return for a thirty year truce with Georgia, thus ending the immediate Georgian threat to the Ayyubids. This brought the struggle for the Armenian lands to a stall, leaving the Lake Van region to the Ayyubids of Damascus . In 1209, starting

21842-555: The south of the quake's epicenter in Turkey. The earthquake occurred along a known 60 km (37 mi) thrust fault striking parallel to the Caucasus range and dipping to the north-northeast. Bruce Bolt , a seismologist and a professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley , walked the length of the fault scarp in 1992 and found that the vertical displacement measured 1 m (3.3 ft) along most of

22005-421: The strongest shaking occurred in industrial areas with chemical and food processing plants, electrical substations, and power plants. The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant , around 75 km (47 mi) from the epicenter, experienced only minor shaking and no damage occurred there, but was eventually closed for a period of six years due to vulnerability concerns. It was reopened in 1995 in order to relieve Armenia of

22168-439: The substantial scope of the disaster. Buildings that did not collapse featured well-maintained masonry and skeletal components that were joined adequately in a way that allowed for the building to resist seismic waves . Most bridges and tunnels and other public infrastructure withstood the earthquake but hospitals did not fare well. Most collapsed, killing two-thirds of their doctors, destroying equipment and medicine, and reducing

22331-409: The suppression of national institutions, contrasted Tamar's era to their contemporary situation, lamenting the irretrievably lost past in their writings. Hence, Tamar became a personification of the heyday of Georgia, a perception that has persisted down to the present time. During World War II , three battalions of the collaborationist Georgian Legion were named after Tamar. Tamar's marriage to

22494-443: The syndrome each day during the first three days. In order to prevent kidney failure or death, the treatment requires prompt hospitalization, and, according to the doctor, the victims were not receiving adequate medication and dialysis and, as a result, most died before the arrival of the first foreign dialysis machines. In February 1989 one hundred construction workers were assembling temporary housing for themselves in Leninakan with

22657-500: The tensions of the Cold War , Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev formally asked the United States for humanitarian help within a few days of the earthquake, the first such request since the late 1940s. One hundred and thirteen countries sent substantial amounts of humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union in the form of rescue equipment, search teams and medical supplies. Private donations and assistance from non-governmental organizations also had

22820-459: The title and plot in accordance with the official ideology of the Soviet state. In 2002, a satirical short story The First Russian (პირველი რუსი) penned by the young Georgian writer Lasha Bughadze and focused on a frustrated wedding night of Tamar and Yuri outraged many conservatives and triggered a nationwide controversy, including heated discussions in the media , the Parliament of Georgia and

22983-526: The title of mep'e might have been applied to Tamar to mark out her unique position among women. Once Tamar succeeded in consolidating her power and found a reliable support in David Soslan, the Mkhargrdzeli , Toreli , and other noble families, she revived the expansionist foreign policy of her predecessors. Repeated occasions of dynastic strife in Georgia combined with the efforts of regional successors of

23146-535: The total area of the province are arable lands , out of which 17% (421 km) are ploughed. The main crops of the province are grains, followed by potato and vegetables. There is a large poultry farm in the town of Spitak. As of 2016, the province has a contribution of around 6% in the annual total industrial product of Armenia. Lori is a major centre for metallurgical business, building materials production, as well as dairy products. The Dzoraget Hydroelectric Power Station ( Armenian : Ձորագետի հիդրոէլեկտրակայան )

23309-434: The town of Spitak. Following an invitation by the Soviets for a critique of their plan, the American proposal was ultimately accepted as the way forward. The new plan would deviate from Soviet styles that were found to be rigid and outdated and would mirror characteristics of the local culture. For many years following World War II the Soviets practiced a methodical top-down approach to urban planning and building, constructing

23472-450: The two successive monarchs on the throne of Georgia. Tamar's reign is associated with a period of marked political and military successes and cultural achievements. This, combined with her role as a female ruler, has contributed to her status as an idealized and romanticized figure in Georgian arts and historical memory. She remains an important symbol in Georgian popular culture . Tamar

23635-523: The unifying efforts of David III and Bagrat III who became architects of a political unity of Georgian kingdoms and principalities in the opening decade of the 11th century. Tamar was able to build upon their successes. By the last years of Tamar's reign, the Georgian state had reached the zenith of its power and prestige in the Middle Ages . Tamar's realm stretched from the Greater Caucasus crest in

23798-452: The villages of Fioletovo and Lermontovo , and in less numbers in the villages of Sverdlov , Mikhayelovka , Privolnoye , Pushkino , Medovka and the town of Tashir . The total number of Molokans in Lori is 3,882 individuals. There are few Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians in Vanadzor, Stepanavan and the village of Amrakits . According to the Diocese of Gougark, as of February 2016, Lori

23961-458: The west with a separate strike-slip sub-event occurring two seconds later that propagated to the southeast. Going westward the fault split into two branches, a north-dipping reverse fault (north branch) and a right slip fault (south branch), but neither produced surface rupture. A total of five sub-events occurred in the first eleven seconds and an aftershock measuring 5.8 ( local magnitude ) occurred four minutes and twenty seconds later. Some of

24124-415: Was a revolt among the mountainers of Pkhovi and Dido on Georgia's northeastern frontier in 1212, which was put down by Ivane Mkhargrzeli after three months of heavy fighting. With flourishing commercial centers now under Georgia's control, industry and commerce brought new wealth to the country and the court. Tribute extracted from the neighbors and war booty added to the royal treasury, giving rise to

24287-402: Was a question of state-importance. Pursuant to dynastic imperatives and the ethos of the time, the nobles required Tamar to marry in order to have a leader for the army and to provide an heir to the throne. Every group strove to select and secure the acceptance of its candidate in order to strengthen its position and influence at court. Two main factions fought for the influence in Tamar's court:

24450-429: Was adjacent to a tributary of the Pambak river where the water table was close to the surface. The highway's embankment failed, and though the site was repaired immediately, the resulting damage to the highway caused considerable delay in getting people and supplies into and out of the area following the disaster. Numerous sand boils were seen in the region northwest of Spitak including within 15 m (49 ft) of

24613-480: Was attacked and destroyed by David Soslan at the Battle of Basian in 1203 or 1204. The chronicler of Tamar describes how the army was assembled at the rock-hewn town of Vardzia before marching on to Basian and how the queen addressed the troops from the balcony of the church. Exploiting her success in this battle, between 1203 and 1205 Georgians seized the town of Dvin and entered Ahlatshah possessions twice and subdued

24776-428: Was becoming more and more assertive of her rights as a queen regnant. The turning point in Tamar's fortunes came with the death of the powerful Catholicos-Patriarch Michael whom the queen replaced, as a chancellor, with her supporter, Anton Gnolistavisdze . Tamar gradually expanded her own power-base and elevated her loyal nobles to high positions at the court, most notably the Mkhargrdzeli . In 1187, Tamar persuaded

24939-428: Was born c. 1195 and would succeed her brother as a sovereign of Georgia. David Soslan's status of a king consort , as well as his presence in art, on charters, and on coins, was dictated by the necessity of male aspects of kingship, but he remained a subordinate ruler who shared the throne with and derived his power from Tamar. Tamar continued to be styled as mep’et’a mep’e  – " king of kings ". In Georgian,

25102-498: Was born in circa 1160 to George III , King of Georgia , and his consort Burdukhan , a daughter of the king of Alania . While it is possible that Tamar had a younger sister, Rusudan , she is only mentioned once in all contemporary accounts of Tamar's reign. The name Tamar is of Hebrew origin and, like other biblical names, was favored by the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty because of their claim to be descended from David ,

25265-756: Was centered about 50 km (31 mi) southeast of Spitak and had a maximum intensity of VIII on the Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale. While that shock may have been related to the Pambak-Sevan fault, the October 22, 1926 1926 Leninakan earthquake to the west of the 1988 event also had a maximum intensity of MSK VIII. Sources Tamar of Georgia Tamar the Great ( Georgian : თამარ მეფე , romanized : tamar mepe , lit.   ' King Tamar ' ; c. 1160 – 18 January 1213) reigned as

25428-509: Was concealed under an anticline and was not visible at the surface. Along the western segments, the fault split into two branches with one to the southwest and the other to the northwest. Buildings and other structures were extensively damaged during the earthquake, but roadways and railways also experienced disturbances. Many case histories pertaining to liquefaction in sandy soil exist, but few exist with respect to gravel and gravelly sands. In certain situations, gravelly sands may liquefy in

25591-423: Was given the mission of bringing the bridegroom to Tbilisi. He fulfilled his mission with zeal, and the prince was brought to Georgia to marry the queen in 1185. The young man – valiant, perfect of body and pleasant to behold – Yuri proved to be an able soldier, but a difficult person and he soon ran afoul of his wife. The strained spousal relations paralleled a factional struggle at the royal court in which Tamar

25754-650: Was highly original, even though it developed close contact with neighboring cultures. The trend culminated in Shota Rustaveli 's epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin ( Vepkhistq'aosani ), which celebrates the ideals of an " Age of Chivalry " and is revered in Georgia as the greatest achievement of native literature. Tamar outlived her consort, David Soslan, and died of a "devastating disease" not far from her capital Tbilisi , having previously crowned her son, Lasha-Giorgi, coregent . Tamar's historian relates that

25917-529: Was in that period that the canon of Georgian Orthodox architecture was redesigned and a series of large-scale domed cathedrals were built. The Byzantine-derived expression of royal power was modified in various ways to bolster Tamar's unprecedented position as a woman ruling in her own right. The five extant monumental church portraits of the queen are clearly modeled on Byzantine imagery, but also highlight specifically Georgian themes and Persian-type ideals of female beauty. Despite Georgia's Byzantine-leaning culture,

26080-473: Was incorporated into Soviet Armenia on 6 November 1921. During the Soviet period, modern-day Lori was divided into the raions of Kalinino, Tumanyan (Alaverdi until 1969), Kirovakan, Aragats, Spitak and Stepanavan. After the independence of Armenia, the 6 raions were merged as per the 1995 administrative reform, to form the Lori Province. According to the 1989 Soviet census , the Lori Province (then part of

26243-473: Was rendered abortive when Tamar had Qutlu Arslan arrested and his supporters were inveigled into submission. Yet, Tamar's first moves to reduce the power of the aristocratic élite were unsuccessful. She failed in her attempt to use a church synod to dismiss the Catholicos-Patriarch Michael , and the noble council, Darbazi , asserted the right to approve royal decrees. Queen Tamar's marriage

26406-428: Was sparked by a reaction against the repressive policies of her father and encouraged by the new sovereign's other perceived weakness, her sex. As Georgia had never previously had a female ruler, a part of the aristocracy questioned Tamar's legitimacy, while others tried to exploit her youth and supposed weakness to assert greater autonomy for themselves. The energetic involvement of Tamar's influential aunt Rusudan and

26569-419: Was that the Armenians were already distrustful of Gorbachev's dismissal of their claims to the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh , which the Armenians had been contesting with neighboring Azerbaijan . The tensions between the two countries prior to when the earthquake struck heightened amid reports of festivities being held and celebratory messages arriving from Azerbaijan. The world responded rapidly to

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