Introduction
Armenia is one of few countries entirely located in the zone of high seismic risk. Due to it the losses from earthquakes in the territory of Armenia in 1988-1998 are 94% of the amount caused from all types of disasters. There were 2028
emergencies in Armenia in 2003 including 1859 e.g. 92% of technogenic origin (wildfire, destruction, car accidents etc) and 169 e.g. 8% of natural origin (earthquake, floods and deluge, landslides, hail, frost). During those events 227 people
have been perished and 1788 people have been suffered. Appendix 1 represents the catalogue of earthquakes occurred in Armenia in 2003. There were significant steps in the field of earthquake caused disaster management in the Republic ofArmenia:
establishment (after destructive Spitak 1988 Earthquake) of Armenian National Survey for Seismic Protection (Armenian NSSP) which succeed in relatively short time and awarded by UN-Sasakawa premium for impressing
results in the field of natural disaster prevention.
in 1999 the Government of the Republic of Armenia adopted the state complex programs on seismic risk reduction in the territory of Armenia and the city of Yerevan.
in 2002 the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia adopted The law "On Seismic Protection"

Armenian NSSP main tasks and goals are as follows:a. seismic hazard monitoring in the territory of the Republic of Armenia
b. seismic hazard and risk assessmentc. seismic risk reductiond. assessment of induced seismisity levele. assessment of secondary hazards caused by seismic hazard

The Expert Council established in Armenian NSSP includes prominent national and foreign scientists and specialists and is dealing with the reviewing and adoption the following matters of great importance:seismic zoning maps of various scale
coordination the activities in the field of seismic risk reduction
major earthquakes prediction in the territory of Armenia
development relations for mutual benefit with foreign countries
definition the directions of priority funding in the field of seismic risk reduction

Armenian NSSP possess the valuable Earthquake Catalogue of Armenia and adjacent areas as well as the detailed reports about the earthquakes occurred and activity undertaken. Since 2002 Armenian NSSP as an Agency was a part ofEmergency Management Administration under the Government of the Republic of Armenia (EMA RA). The main functions of EMA RA are as follows:
establish governmental policy in Civil Protection and enhance the country preparedness level
mitigate the consequences of emergencies
organize and implement civil training in the field of protection and survival in emergencies
participate, organize and coordinate rehabilitation and rescue activities in emergencies and promote cooperation between governmental and public (volunteer) rescue organizationsorganize and provide resources for international cooperation in emergency protection problems.

The EMA Crisis Management Institute provides:
training and education of specialists in the field of emergency protection for government management institutions, non-governmental and private organizations
training and education of specialists in the field of emergency preparedness and prediction, and technological protection
training and education of specialists in the field of planning the activities in emergency, operative and crisis management
implementation the emergency education programs in higher education system of the Republic of Armenia
training the lecturers dealing with the emergency problems in higher education system of the Republic of Armenia
population training and education organization in emergency.
Armenian NSSP web-page is www.nssp.am and EMA RA web-page is www.ema.am
The pages is temporarily not functioning in the period from 25 January 2004 till 10.February 2004 due to modernization.
The ADRC responsible person in the Republic of Armenia is Dr. Alvaro Antonyan, President of Armenian NSSP, tel. 374 1 28-64-94; fax 374 1 36-62-80; Mailing address: Davidashen Massiv IV, Yerevan, 375054, Republic of Armenia.

The Stages of Disaster Management
The stages of disaster management are as follows:organization of disaster management
organization of rescue operationsorganization of pre-medical aid
organization of local authorities actions
population life-support in disaster zone
evacuation of population from disaster zone
aid allocation

Disaster Management National System in the Republic of Armenia
The scheme of disaster management system in the Republic of Armenia is presented in Appendix 2. The main goal of the scheme is population protection and its system along with subsystems is presented in Appendix 3.
Organization and structure of Disaster Management National System (DMNS) is stipulated by:losses and damage caused by earthquake and size of zone involved
seismic vulnerability
task force preparedness and being equippedgovernment strategy based on understanding of disaster hazard and risk levelavailability of necessary resources in case of disaster

Major earthquake can cause national disaster for small nation.
In this case the government handles the disaster management and the regional (marze) and community (town and village) disaster management bodies are established under the aegis of DMNS including local authorities and representatives ofa number of institutions namely Emergency, Seismic Protection, Internal affairs, Defence etc.
DMNS and its elements structure, staff, and tasks as well as responsibility are stipulated by legal and normative documents and government decisions.Below the tentative structure and tasks of the republican and community seismic disastermanagement headquarters are presented.

Disaster Management Community (Town) Operative Headquarters

The headquarters are arranged immediately after earthquake by the order of Prime Minister or Governor. The order provides the headquarters named staff, location and main obligations and responsibilities. Operative Headquarters areworking round clock and maintaining meetings everyday. Conditions for headquarters effective work are provided and permanent communication with DMNS, government and municipal services are ensured. Headquarters comprise of
15-20 experts and representatives of state management bodies who are directly dealing with rescue operations and organizational tasks of earthquake consequences elimination. To solve problems mentioned below the specialcommittees under the town headquarters are expedient to establish. Every committee should have clear and distinct idea about its main tasks, obligations and authority, and work timetable (round clock during the first month afterearthquake).

Main Tasks of Disaster Management Community Operative Headquarters
1. Assess the situation and earthquake consequences extent and provide operative activity for organization of rescue operations
define the extent of destruction and the number of victims and injured
define the necessary equipment and mechanisms for rescue operations
involve Army and its equipment in rescue operations
meet and allocate rescuers from abroad according damaged areas and units
2. Organize the providing injured with immediate medical aid
define the number of required experts and equipment including specialized cars, medicine and materials
define the required amount of donor blood or substitutes
organize the medical service
define the possibility of heavy sick people evacuation to other towns and abroad
3. Ban the transportation entrance to disaster zone besides those of special purpose
4. Organize people evacuation
with families to foreign countries by shuttle buses, railroad and airplanes
to other towns and resorts of the country by local transportation
5. Organize the registration of unknown victims and burying
6. Put a place law and order and fight looting
7. Provide operative activities for earthquake secondary consequences prevention and localization.
8. Get, allocate and install the temporary households such as vans and tents
9. Provide the people with the necessary resources including dry and liquid fuel, warm clothes, sleeping accessories, food and water
10. Organize the answer service for inquiries about the destiny of relatives and acquaintances.
11. Make up the list of missing and injured, and dead people
12. Provide citizens who have lost the passport due to earthquake with temporary identity.

Earthquake Consequences Liquidation Permanent Acting Committee under the Community Headquarters1. Committee on rescue operations organization
2. Committee on rapid medical aid
3. Information center4. Committee on victims burying
5. Committee on population evacuation
6. Committee on temporary shelter reception allocation
7. Committee on earthquake consequences extent and situation evaluating
8. Committee on a place law and order
9. Committee on life-support

Republican Management Operative Headquarters
Usually the destructive earthquakes circle the territory of several administrative areas (marzes, regions, towns etc). Due to it the establishment of republican earthquake consequences liquidation headquarters is essential. The main
goal of republican headquarters is the coordination of activities of different community headquarters with the aim at saving human lives and liquidation of earthquake consequences. The republican headquarters are formed by thedecree of the President. It indicates the staff of headquarters, location and main obligations and responsibilities. The headquarters are working round clock organize the meetings several times if needed and not less than once a week.
The headquarters are headed by the Prime Minister. It involve the ministers, governors and the Chairman of National Assembly etc.

Main Tasks of the Republican Headquarters
1. Defining the borders of disasters zone, settlements selection by the priority of aid provided.
2. Evaluation of damage extent and number of victims and suffered as well as other earthquake consequences in the territory of state
3. Rescue operation organized on state level
4. Organization of providing the injured with immediate medical aid
5. Coordination of activities of regional community earthquake liquidation headquarters and providing support to local authorities of disaster zone and planning the actions after earthquake
6. Definition the number of required specialists including rescuers, physicians etc. and equipment (first place rescue and medical ones) and amount of medicine and other materials and appeal to internationalorganizations and foreign states for assistance.
7. Allocation of experts including the foreign ones and equipment and materials in disaster zone.
8. Organization of population evacuation from disaster zone to other regions and if possible to foreign countries
9. Visa and customs easy clearance for experts arrived from international organizations and foreign counties and for material and technical assistance.
10. Providing the assistance including food, water and shelter to the population of disaster zone at the expense of state resources and reserves, increase of life-support and preserving the essential resources including
valuable equipment and materials
11. Developing and organization urgent actions for earthquake secondary consequences prevention and localization
12. Providing population and organizations with information about earthquake and current situation» Page Top» Country Report Top

Appendix 1

2003 Earthquake Catalogue
NYearMonthDay

Timein source

N. Lat.

E. Long.

Mag.
M1

20030220

10:08:24

41.20

43.88

1.60

2

2003

02

20

23:15:19

41.08

43.91

2.71

3

2003

02

24

21:52:01

41.13

43.91

2.52

4

2003

02

25

21:21:39

41.08

43.80

2.47

5

2003

02

26

23:13:39

41.22

43.92

1.45

6

2003

03

27

15:50:34

41.02

43.68

2.10

7

2003

05

09

21:43:25

40.98

44.34

2.00

8

2003

05

10

16:42:21

40.37

43.92

1.67

9

2003

05

15

08:41:24

40.25

45.80

2.48

10

2003

05

20

10:33:27

41.13

44.12

1.69

11

2003

07

30

05:31:21

40.10

44.12

2.23

12

2003

08

14

07:59:50

41.02

44.87

2.80

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

13

2003

08

19

14:05:56

40.67

44.30

2.62

14

2003

08

27

15:19:19

40.58

44.22

2.27

15

2003

08

31

14:08:21

40.28

44.25

1.75

16

2003

09

12

20:56:19

40.33

44.80

2.45

17

2003

09

14

09:27:24

40.27

43.65

2.85

18

2003

09

18

19:04:15

39.37

45.82

1.57

19

2003

10

02

15:41:58

40.85

43.92

1.70

20

2003

10

15

07:42:40

40.57

45.00

2.25

21

2003

10

27

15:46:13

41.12

43.98

2.16

22

2003

11

15

08:36:45

41.00

43.87

2.33

23

2003

11

17

01:57:42

41.13

43.53

1.66

24

2003

11

19

02:00:18

40.32

44.15

2.10

25

2003

11

2309:43:49

39.02

46.32

1.44

26

2003

11

27

05:22:14

40.28

44.32

2.37

27

2003

12

01

17:25:52

40.32

44.22

2.14

28

2003

12

31

22:40:42

41.12

43.98

1.83

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