Yerevan November 23
Tatevik Shahunyan. Minister of Diaspora of Armenia Mkhitar Hayrapetyan tried to explain today's results of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund's TV Marathon 2018 and the fact that, contrary to expectations, less money was raised this year than last year, despite the fact that the government had previously a change of power that the Diaspora did not trust, as a result of the fight against corruption and a change in the management of the fund, the trust of our foreign citizens increased, and they are ready to increase their donations and investments.
"There are objective realities, which consist in the lack of time, because until the last moment they did not know in the Diaspora itself whether a telethon would be held at all or not," the Minister tried to justify himself. At the same time, he acknowledged that the department he headed also made omissions in working with the Diaspora, namely, in terms of information and coordination.
According to him, the Ministry and the government face the task of improving relations with the Diaspora, since it is impossible to rely only on post-revolutionary euphoria. "We need deep steps to improve relations with the Diaspora. Armenia itself should define the logic of working with Diaspora: should it serve only as a source of money, or should the Motherland somehow coordinate the work of Armenian structures abroad", the minister said.
Hayrapetyan also did not rule out the possibility of abolishing the Ministry headed by him and transforming him near the board after the elections. According to him, the work of the Ministry of Diaspora still had a nominal character. To note, Armenians of the whole world transferred to the annual telethon of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund 11 million 106 thousand 633 dollars. Last year 12 million 505 thousand 456 dollars were raised. The largest amount was collected in 2008 – $ 31 million.
