THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140329
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
With each bloody day of Russia's 2-month-old war to hold onto the breakaway republic of Chechnya, Sergei Ioannisyan's desperation grows.
As the dogged Chechen rebels dig in against the slash-and-burn tactics of Boris Yeltsin's army, Ioannisyan's relatives sit huddled in their apartment, terrified that the fierce combat will spill over the Chechen border into their republic.
``I'm so depressed,'' Ioannisyan said Monday, sitting with his American-born wife, Erin, in the ballet studio they operate in Providence Square Shopping Center. ``I keep waiting for the call telling me that somebody has raped my sisters and killed my father.''
Ioannisyan's father, Yuri; his stepmother; his sisters, 14 and 13; and his brothers, 8 and 7; live in Nalchik, a city in the neighboring Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Bulkaria. Nalchik is about 100 miles west of Grozny, the embattled Chechen capital, which has been virtually leveled by overwhelming Russian firepower. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civilians have been slaughtered and tens of thousands more left homeless.
Ioannisyan's most immediate concern is the breakdown of civil order now rampant throughout the ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus region, where the majority Muslims chafed under Russian domination for decades.
When Russian troops poured into the region in mid-December to crush the Chechens' bid for independence, Ioannisyan said, ``it all blew up like a volcano.''
The resulting chaos has been chronicled in letters from his father, a respected concert pianist and music teacher.
``Before, they let my sisters go out on the streets freely,'' Ioannisyan said. ``Now they don't.'' He said his relatives' ethnic Russianfeatures make them an easy mark for roving bands of gun-toting Muslim Mafia who rule the streets.
``They grab girls; they rape them. People disappear. Men stop cars in the middle of the road with machine guns and rob them.''
His fearful siblings now make the short walk from their apartment to school furtively.
``One day my father was walking on the street with my sisters, and some guys stopped them and fondled the girls. There was nothing my father could do. There's no police. There's no rules. Whoever has the gun, rules.''
For a while, Ioannisyan said, his father kept up a brave front. But now his letters betray the desperation of a man besieged. ``In his last letter, he said, `Sergei, we cannot handle this anymore. Please help us - not for me, but for my kids.' ''
Ioannisyan and his wife place little faith in the limited cease-fire announced Monday by the Russians and Chechens. It is not at all clear whether Chechen fighters, many of whom fight on their own, will honor the truce. Other cease-fire agreements in December and January collapsed within hours.
The cease-fire ``is baloney,'' said Erin Ioannisyan. ``They won't listen. The Chechen people aren't scared of anybody.''
Yuri Ioannisyan has concluded that the best way to assure his family's safety is to bring them to the United States. His son and daughter-in-law are determined to help. But the couple's resources are limited. Erin, 22, a graduate of Cox High School, met her husband while studying ballet at the Institute of Culture and Arts in St. Petersburg. Sergei, 25, a jazz percussionist, was a music student there. They opened their studio, the Russian Academy of Ballet and Music, last summer.
Yuri Ioannisyan is an honors graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory of Rimsky-Korsakov, alma mater of such musical greats as Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. But he must have a promise of a job in the United States before he can get a work visa to enter the country.
While he searches for work, he plans to move his family temporarily to St. Petersburg. Sergei and Erin Ioannisyan have set up a fund at a local bank to help with their expenses.
``I would give anything to help them,'' Ioannisyan said. He and his wife have placed on hold, for now, their dreams of building a life together in the performing arts. ``Family's more important,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Chechen conflict heavy on their minds
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Sergei Ioannisyan and his American-born wife, Erin, in the ballet
studio they operate in Virginia Beach. ``I'm so depressed,''
Ioannisyan said. ``I keep waiting for the call telling me that
somebody has raped my sisters and killed my father.''
HOW TO HELP
A fund to help the Ioannisyan family has been set up at First
Union Bank. Checks can be made out to Sergei's Family Relief Fund.
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