FUND’S INTERESTING NUMBERS
James Hakobyan
Lragir.am
01/12/09
Hayastan pan-Armenian fund released the results of 2009 telethon
which show quite an interesting image. 15 million 845 thousand 43
dollars have been gathered. Those, as we know, are concrete donations
and promises. Unfortunately, the fund did not release which part of
it are promises and which is to be considered given money. At the
present moment, the problem is not this, though in general it is a
serious problem.
Approximately 16 million was gotten not only during the Los-Angeles
telethon but also during the telethon held earlier as well as during
the dinner of the Armenian businessmen in Russia. In particular,
the very dinner donated 5 million 290 thousand dollars. This number
is several times less than the one of the last year which was held
in a wider format and businessmen from Armenia also participated in it.
Last year, almost 30 million dollars were gathered 15 millions of
which donated the businessman Samvel Karapetyan.
But even if we assume that last year, businessmen from Armenia also
participated in the dinner, nevertheless, the decline of this year is
essential. The point is that this year from Armenia and Artsakh the
donation got only 1 million 747 thousand 43 dollars. If we presume
that this is the money the businessmen donated and citizens have no
participation, adding it to the Moscow 5 million we have almost 7
million dollars. If we assume also that during the previous time,
15 million from 30 gathered during the dinner was donated by Samvel
Karapetyan, nevertheless, in comparison with the previous 15 million
7 million is doubly less. The economic crisis is possible to have
intervened we just registered the fact.
>From this point it is also notable that surprisingly little money
was gathered from the U.S. which is the most wealthy Armenian colonies.
Surprisingly, only 2 million 86 thousand drams were gathered. Here
again the reason may be the crisis but we again register the fact.
Previously, only the wealthy Armenian people living in the U.S. used
to donate more than the whole U.S. gathered this year. Perhaps, the
former NKR president, the current Armenian Ambassador at large Arkadi
Ghukasyan failed to convince the Armenian-American wealthy men to be
generous while donating. Which is the reason why they were passive
this time? Is it the result of the ineffective work of the fund,
or delusion from the Armenian government or the crisis? This is a
matter of another conversation.
The result of the Armenians living in Europe is more or less
impressive. Generally, Armenians living in France, Germany,
Switzerland, Holland, Austria and Great Britain gathered approximately
5, 5 million dollars. The fund is notable not to mention other
countries, while in Europe there are many other countries having
Armenian colonies.
The fact that alongside with the names of Argentine and Brazil the
name of Uruguay lacks while there is a tangible number of Armenians
living there is interesting too. More than half a million of dollars
was gathered from Canada, and Lebanon and Australia together gathered
300 thousand dollars. The name of Greece which has quite a big Armenian
colony lacks, it is surprising too.