Building a Crematorium in Armenia has Become Imperative, Expert Says

On Feb. 27, 2006, Armenia’s National Assembly adopted a law on the “Operation of Cemeteries and Crematoria and the Organization of Burials,” according to which a crematorium was to have been built in Yerevan with special furnaces for cremation, a special visitation room for final farewells, and refrigerated area for temporary storage of the deceased.

The crematorium has yet to be built. According to state agency “Special Service of Population” engineer Razmik Harutyunyan, building crematoriums has become imperative, as the number of cemetery plots is very limited.

“I can’t verifiably say anything about the building of crematoria, since all the agencies in the project have been assigned to study and provide information about their construction’s location selection and allocated funds. Under Armenia’s conditions, it’s very important to have such a structure. First, 80–90% of the land will be saved, the sanitary-ecological situation will improve drastically, the safety of the surrounding environment will be ensured, the aesthetics of burials will be brought to the proper level, stress levels of relatives of the deceased will be lowered, and additional costs associated with burial ceremonies will be saved,” Harutyunyan told Epress.am.

The engineer added that there are crematoria in all developed countries; for example, there are 14,330 crematoriums in the US. In the case of Armenia, cremation will be not be mandatory and only offered to those who request it.

“The dead body is burned through the use of electricity (from above) and gas (from below) at high temperatures. An urn [is provided to the family], made of non-decaying material (metal or plastic), a container with an airtight lid where the ashes of the deceased are placed.

“There will also be a memorial wall defined by law, for placing specially built urns,” said Harutyunyan.

The Armenian Apostolic Church, however, is against cremating the deceased.

“The Church says you are the earth, you will return to the earth, not considering the scarcity of land. In 2020, there has to be 146 hectares of land for burial plots, while by 2030, there will be a demand for 300 hectares. Currently, cemeteries take up 540 hectares of land. Cremation will lead to the economical use of land, and land that’s been saved can be used for better purposes — say, to build parks and cultivated grounds. Furthermore, 1.5 billion cubic construction material will be saved — nails, wood and different materials,” Harutyunyan stressed.

The city employee, however, noted that family plots are mandatory according to custom. According to him, if cremation is adopted, ancestral cemeteries (and enclosed mausoleums) could be built to bury all family members in the same area.

“If today 12 square meters of land is allotted for 4 people to be buried, well after cremation, it will be possible to place 23 urns in the same 12 square meters [not necessarily buried but this is also an option]. Crematoriums also have a biological significance: after burial, a corpse begin to decompose, … which doesn’t happen when it’s burned,” he said, adding this process releases relatives of the deceased from the very expensive burden of purchasing headstones and maintaining and cleaning plots.