The Editor, Armenian Weekly
Dear Sirs,
In your lead article in today's (November 4th) issue you say,inter alia, that Russia "first entered the republic under thepretext of helping to restart a damaged nuclear power plant". Itis hard to find a sentence with so many errors.
The Medzamor power plant in Armenia was not damaged even bythe 1989 earthquake. But in 1989, authorities in Moscow, with theconcurrence of authorities in Yerevan, decided that it neededsafety improvements to bring it close to western safety standards. It seemed cheaper to shut down and bring in cheap natural gas fromTurkmenistan by a pipeline through Azerbaijan. This decision tookno account of the political realities that have caused so manydeaths and so many dislocated people in the last 5 years.
The person most responsible for urging the Russians to helpArmenia has been Dr Armen Abagyan, head of the Institute of NuclearPower Operations in Moscow. Dr Abagyan, born in Stepanekert andwith a sister in Yerevan, has succeeded after many years of effortin persuading Russia to GIVE Armenia $69 million to upgrade thepower plant. By this act of generosity Russia recognizes fullwell the positive role that Armenians have played in the USSR forso many years and before that in the Russian state.
I was privileged to visit Medzamor at the suggestion ofPresident Levon Ter Petrossian in July. I joined a team from theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development. My report (tothe Andrei Sakharov Foundation of New York and Moscow) is public;the report of my friends and colleagues to the Bank is not. Butwe were all impressed by the eagerness and dedication to safety ofthe Armenian staff and the genuine appreciation for the brotherlyhelp that they have received from Russia.
As the plant, blessed by the Catholicos of all Armenians, is being brought to full power this week, I can assure Armeniansthat the Medzamor reactor number 2 is as safe as any of its type. It will double the amount of electricity available to the hardpressed Armenians, and should enable Armenia to have a morecomfortable winter.
This in itself should be a step towards the peace all rightminded people desire.
Yours sincerely, Richard Wilson (WILSON@huhepl.harvard.edu)
Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Harvard University