Our compatriot Karo Armen is the main owner of New York’s famous “Anti-jenix” biotechnological institute as well as the founder of the “Armen Partners” pharmaceutical company.
Doctor of physical chemistry Karo Armen is a famous businessman, entrepreneur and humanist in New York. At present he’s the director of the board of two major companies, worth hundreds of million of dollars. One of them is located in New York; the other one in Ireland. The “personalized cancer vaccine”, produced by the Anti-jenix biotechnological institute, is in the third stage of its development. Mr. Armen is planning to bring the cancer vaccine in Armenia in order to make our country a progressive state of cancer healing. Also, the fertilizer has been officially approved by the US. “It’s not a chemical therapy. It raises the immunity of the organism and instead reduces the cancer. Our medicine is used in case of 2nd or 3rd degree cancer because it’s too late for the 4th degree,” says the scientist by adding that the medicine doesn’t cure the cancer but increases the life of the patient. The Anti-jenix has applied officially to Russia to sell the medication in Russia.
Born in Turkey, Armen lives in USA at present. He’s a person full of ideas. He first visited Armenia in 2001, traveled in villages and he got so touched by the miserable financial abilities of villagers that decided to invest his financial resources in the villages of Armenia. This program has become so successful that Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has also started to apply it by calling it “program of development of village communities of Armenia”. “I am sufficed that the program is successful and that others are continuing our initiatives. We have an over two-year experience and I have also told Vardan that we’ll participate and apply our skills,” said Karo Armen. He currently implements a reconstruction program in six villages of Armavir.
– When I first got to Yerevan I was very touched because I was staying in Yerevan Hotel on Abovyan street and I was seeing many beggars on the streets. And when I went to Karakert village I was astonished. When I entered to the village I saw a young girl 3-4 years old, named Ani. She was a girl but looked like a guy and had an earring. I have spoken to Ani and her father. He told me that the whole village is unemployed and the only way of living is land cultivation and that is enough to buy the daily bread. He said that the other residents of the village are in the worse condition. He at least is able to buy bread for the family. As I liked Ani very much I offered them some money. They didn’t take it by saying they don’t need. We have neighbors who are poorer. If you want you can give the money to them. So I was impressed, great people and very proud. So I decided to help these people by investing money in the village. They are very diligent but don’t have tools. You can’t build a house without construction material. We didn’t want to give them fish for free and instead offered them fishing rods. Armenians have a hardworking spirit. In 2003 when I traveled to Armenian villages I examined the orphanages, schools and kindergartens. The Armenians of the Diaspora mostly focus on Yerevan but the conditions in villages are direr. It’s impossible to develop the country only through the capital. We were asking people in Karakert how the village can be developed. A person named Davtyan described us the issues of the villages and said that the village has priority issues, such as potable water and that the schools are in a terrible conditions and function in winters without being heated. When I expressed my willingness to help the villages the person skeptically said that everybody promises but nothing is done. I promised him to come to Armenia and follow the steps of reconstruction of the village. They laughed at me without believing and so I have been visiting Armenia every three months since 2003.
– Thus, your program of reconstructing the village was realized. Almost 4 years have passed. What has been changed in Karakert village?
– We needed 9 months for our surveys of the village. The residents of Karakert were worrying that nothing has been done within 9 months. In 9 months we have started our activities – reconstructed the schools, kindergartens, polyclinic, hospital, irrigation water system, water pipeline, etc. Besides that we train the people working in the mentioned places. We tried to give knowledge to children, granted many kinds of vaccines for the polyclinic. 4500 people live in Karakert and the number of the children is 1200. Before the implementation of the program there 100 families, which were so destitute that were drinking irrigation water. They didn’t even have bread. We undertook means to provide them with flour, sugar and other necessary food items.
– Are you not afraid that people will get too used to receiving donation? Wouldn’t it be more expedient to develop some industrial branch in the village and employ the villagers?
– Indeed. We are doing our best to ensure people take care of themselves on their own. Today we step to Karakert and see gigantic improvement. In past people were almost dead, there was no motion in the village. Now they are energetic; the village is revived. We have also opened a bus route. We also publish newspaper, where the young people of the village work. The newspaper updates people about 6 nearest villages. In Karakert people have opened a future-producing workshop on their own. Stores were opened. Even the character of people has changed. The news of the reconstruction of the village has reached even Meghri. The head of the village country has traveled for 14 hours to see me and talk about their village.
– Have you been to the borderline villages of Armenia? Do you know that the migration level is especially high in borderline villages?
– I have been to Meghri, Karabagh, Vanadzor, Syunik, etc. We have got inspired by the success of Karakert and decided to go further. Villages Karakert, Daralik, Lernagog, Shenik, Arpeni and Myanikyan are separated from each other only by 4-5 kilometers. Due to our program a competition has started among those villages. People want to develop their villages even more.
– Now many people will be interested in why a person, who heads well-known companies in New York and Ireland would ever care about the reconstruction of the rural communities of Armenia. Where does this care come from?
– I was born in Turkey and when I founded myself in the US I decided to always visit Armenia. As in the beginning I didn’t have any financial potential I couldn’t do much for Armenia. From distance I knew that Armenia is facing major problems. There were many Turk students in my school and the principal was a Turk. I was speaking about the liberation of Armenian territories among my schoolmates. And this rumor reached the school principal. The principal punished me for that by slapping me in the face. My father didn’t want me to stay there because I’d be in prison for being intolerant. I left Turkey once I graduated from the school. After the peek of my career I attained great financial means and decided to invest some of that in my motherland. That’s how the program was realized. You come to Yerevan and it feels like in Milan. There are a few differences but in rural community there is wide-spread poverty.