An interview of “Ramgavar Mamoul” with Bedros Terzian, member of the Board of Trustees of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund:
-Discussions at various levels, and often inappropriate ones, are unfolding around the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund. Why does this noise and all of this, in general, harm the reputation of this important institution? What do you say in this regard?
A few days after the 9 November ceasefire, political debates opened up about the sums that the Fund received from all corners of the world as donations and transferred to the government, to be used for necessary and urgent needs during the war and the days that followed. Those contributions were mainly directed to three areas: infrastructure, social, and health. And the demand being voiced was that the government should present an account to the Fund as soon as possible. This is certainly understandable; the first to demand an account from the government is the Fund itself, and that is stipulated in the agreements that the Fund signed with the government on the occasion of each transfer. To put it more precisely, the third article of those agreements states very clearly that an accounting must be presented, and if afterwards it becomes clear that there are sums that have not been used within the aforementioned three areas, those sums must be returned to the Fund.
Therefore, for us, as a Fund, there is no question, in the sense that the demand for that accounting already exists in our agreements. Consequently, opening a debate about this, making public statements, only and only harms the Fund.
It is true that all those making statements say that they are protecting the Fund’s interests, but we understand well that in the present political circumstances there may be other calculations as well.
Our position is very clear: the agreements signed with the government must be respected, there is no doubt, however, we are aware that very complex programmes have been implemented by the government. That is, 100,000 people have been involved in the overall process of assistance, and mainly the population of Artsakh has been involved there. Of course, there are various programmes — for the families of the fallen, the families of the disabled, and the displaced, and citizens who have lost their homes and pastures. It is a fairly large programme, a complex programme; therefore we understand that the government needs time to present an account, and we wait with patience, and we also call on political figures to have confidence in the Fund’s accounting mechanisms. We have had experience in this field for 30 years; our accounts have been strictly audited by independent, foreign organisations; in this case, our current auditing firm is the well-known British company “Baker Tilly” (Baker Tilly accounting company UK). So our demand from political actors is that they give us time so that we can bring the audits to their conclusion, after which we will transparently declare in what direction those sums have been used and present an accounting to our donors.
So, our request is that an end be put to these political debates, which harm the Fund’s overall reputation and vision.
-What are your upcoming tasks, as a Fund, for post-war Artsakh and Armenia; what is the overall picture and what are you undertaking for the future?
Immediately after the ceasefire, the Fund already began to think about what tasks there are in Artsakh and to help the displaced people of Artsakh. Today we have a huge programme on which both the Fund’s executive directorate and the government of Artsakh have worked. That is, in the coming days we shall have the opportunity to publicly announce what reconstruction works we shall undertake in Artsakh — housing, school construction, and so on — and huge sums are planned to be invested so that destroyed buildings are rebuilt, the buildings that sustained damage are repaired, and in that regard part of the works has already begun.
Incidentally, in this direction, the Fund’s executive directorate sent all members of the Board of Trustees a detailed programme regarding the works to be carried out. And as soon as these programmes are ratified by the Board of Trustees, which will happen very quickly, we shall begin a huge work — reconstruction, restoration work, in Artsakh. That is, at last we shall be able to do that work, because until now there were certain obstacles. First, we had to know clearly what the needs are, how many homes are damaged, destroyed, how many people there are who need housing; it was a very long work. Then we had to wait for spring to come, so that the weather would be favourable and make the work possible, because during the winter months, unfortunately, the conditions do not permit construction works to be carried out.
Now it is spring, therefore it is also the time to work. Our programme is ready and we shall move to the implementation of that programme.
-You have many years of experience within this Fund; this institution also operates to a great extent through the efforts of its benefactors in the diaspora, its compatriots, from the simple benefactor to those providing large sums. In that regard, what would you like to say to our compatriots through the pages of “Ramgavar Mamoul”?
The first point I want to emphasise is the following: the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund is the only all-Armenian body that exists in the Armenian world, and we have no other. There are the governments of Artsakh and Armenia, represented at their highest levels; there are our Catholicoses, the heads of our denominations, the historic Armenian political parties, as well as large organisations — the AGBU, the ARS, the Evangelical, and other bodies — and independent individuals, as is my case.
After all, this is the only all-Armenian organisation; let us keep it, let us preserve it, and let us be aware of its importance.
The second point: this crisis we lived through showed how correctly the adjective “all-Armenian” is used, because the executive directorate received more than 750,000 donations; if we consider that these donations were made by families or by enterprises, and if we multiply this number, on average, by four, you will see that about 3,000,000 people participated in this fundraising, thanks to which it was possible to raise 223 million dollars, in the course of 2 months. That is, truly, it was a genuine all-Armenian mobilisation.
And my last point is that this crisis, the debates created around the Fund, lead us to one conclusion: that political actors come to a tacit agreement, in a way a tacit alliance, to keep the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund free from all political debates or speculations. This is the body over which we must watch with care, because it has made a huge contribution to the rise of Armenia and Artsakh, and shall have in the coming decades; a huge work has been done, thousands of programmes have been implemented over the past nearly 30 years, and a greater number of such programmes shall be carried out in the coming years. So, my call, and also the call of my colleagues at the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund, is that political actors keep the Fund free from political debates or speculations and let us work for the benefit of Armenia and Artsakh.
“Ramgavar Mamoul”
