Before launching the fundraising of Armenia pan-Armenian foundation it was clear that less money would be collected than last year. The world economic crisis was one of the reasons. However there is another factor which is very important too.
The 12th annual fundraising live show of Armenia pan-Armenian foundation finished at 8a.m., which was broadcast during 12 hours from Los Angeles. “We are happy to inform that we received donations and promises of donations amounting $15,875,043 ,” said the PR department representative of the foundation executive board Armen Ohanyan. It is a result not only of the TV marathon but different fundraising events organized this year.
The TV marathon 2008 received donations and commitments amounting 35 million. In fact this year more than twice less money was raised than last year. We don’t understand why the representative of the foundation was so happy to announce this news. Most of this sum is promise of donations but not donations done in advance. In the beginning of this month during an official dinner in Moscow the Russian Armenian businessmen promised to donate 5,290k dollars for Shushi. We know how they are loyal to their promises. Furthermore, two years ago in answer to president Serzh Sargsyan’s petition they promised to donate millions. Their promise is still in the air.
Anyway everyone has a reason not to donate anything; both those who are donating less and those who don’t want to donate anything. The crisis is one of the objective reasons. We wander whether the reason is the crisis only. There is another reason as well, which made the Diaspora Armenians to change their minds to donate anything. And this reason is the Armenia-Turkey protocols. The authorities have foreseen this negative result beforehand and they were not hiding it but trying to prevent.
During his speech at the telethon the RA President Serzh Sargsyan mentioned that the money donation of this year has a unique context because not only the world-spread Armenians but also the international community are still in the impression of the Armenia-Turkey protocols. “It is no secret for anyone that these impressions are contradictory. Today both Armenia and Turkey are in the center of attention. Each of our current states is estimated not only by the Armenians of Armenia, our sisters and brothers living abroad but also the haters and supporters of Armenia in the world. We have things to prove to us and the rest of the world,” said Sargsyan and added. “We should prove to everyone that there is no Armenia-Diaspora fragmentation.” And several hours prior to this during the government session prime minister Tigran Sargsyan also called on the Armenians to be active during the telethon. “I think you will agree with me that the restoration of Shushi is an issue of national dignity for us. And in this regard we all have to participate in the donation,” the prime minister told his cabinet members by advising them to serve as an example to their staffs and create a “certain mood, which would encourage them to actively donate.” The prime minister himself tried to serve as an example and said that he personally and his family will donate to the telethon and by this encourage their relatives and friends to do the same. We will try to research shortly and find out how much the prime minister and his relatives have donated and draw a comparison between the donations and their salaries. Let us return to the question that this year much less money was collected compared to the previous years. This put into doubt the statements about the Armenia-Diaspora linkage and the attempts of the Armenian government aimed at demonstrating the restoration of Shushi as a national dignity. And all this was done in the background of Armenia-Turkey protocols and the worrying fuss related to the NKR conflict. In other words we were humiliated. However, as always this time as well the officials were able to find an “optimistic spot” in order to temper the level of frustration and justify the lofty speeches made by them earlier. The number of donators served as a “saving boat” for the government. “In regard of the number of participants this telethon was unprecedented and drastically exceeds the indices of the previous years. The results were impressive in Armenia as well. On the eve of the telethon over 20 thousand Armenia residents have reached to donate. Only in the Hay Post office approximately 13 thousand Armenians managed to make their donations,” reads the official website of the Foundation. “For the pan-Armenian fund, strengthening the army of contributors is more important,” a spokesman for Foundation, told the RFE/RL. “In that sense, we can certainly register progress as the number of our contributors has drastically increased.” In cases like this people usually use a very appropriate saying – “certain consolation for the heart existing in a certain condition.” The innovation of this year also conduced to the activation of participants of the telethon. The innovation was introduced by the Viva Cell – donating via SMS. The Viva Cell (according to them) has over 1 million subscribers. On the day of the telethon 13 thousand out of 20 thousand have already managed to make their donations. And if we assume that the rest donated via SMS technologies (which is a very useful and fast way) then we’ll have the number 7000. Let us wrap up. After the one-month-long commercials on TV only 7 out of 1000 didn’t linger to pick up their phones and send an empty text message by sending at least 200 AMD to the foundation. Let us agree that the reason of such total indifference cannot only be connected with the crisis or the social conditions of people. The main reason, perhaps, is the insufficient level of trust to the government and the foundation. However, if this trust was there perhaps there would be no need to ask for money from the rest of the world for the restoration of Shushi. As finally it is shameful to resolve the issues of national dignity by begging money from people.