Vatche Arslanian

Vatche Arslanian (* 1955 ; † April 8, 2003 in Baghdad ) was a member of the Canadian Red Cross and as a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since 2001 responsible for the logistics of the ICRC mission in Iraq . Shortly after the start of the Iraq war , he was killed in the crossfire of units fighting in the city while driving through Baghdad.

Biographical information

Education and professional activity

Vatche Arslanian, whose family was of Armenian descent, was born in Syria in 1955 . At the age of 20 he emigrated to Canada . Until 1995 he was a member of the Canadian Army . During this time he was transferred to the Gagetown Army Base near the town of Oromocto in New Brunswick Province . He stayed in Oromocto even after he left the army. In 1992 he became a member of the city council and remained active in this function until 1998, temporarily as deputy mayor. He graduated from the University of Montreal with a degree in political science .

Work for the Red Cross

In 1999, Vatche Arslanian began working for the Canadian Red Cross. This year he helped with the accommodation and care of over 1,000 civil war refugees from Kosovo at the Gagetown Army Base. A year later he took part in a foreign assignment for the ICRC for the first time, as a logistician in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

Since July 17, 2001, he has been the coordinator responsible for the logistics area of ​​the ICRC mission in Iraq. After the war in Iraq began on March 20, 2003, he stayed in Baghdad with five other ICRC delegates to continue supporting the local aid workers in their work. On April 8, 2003, he was traveling through Baghdad with two helpers from the Iraqi Red Crescent when their vehicle got caught in the crossfire of fighting between the Iraqi army and units of the coalition forces. Vatche Arslanian was killed in this incident and his two companions escaped injured.

Web links

• Caught in the cross-fire: Baghdad, April 8, 2003 (English)