In an annual telethon broadcast from Los Angeles late on November 24, a pan-Armenian charity received about $12.3 million in donations that will be mostly invested in the ongoing reconstruction of Nagorno-Karabakh’s water distribution network. Let’s remember that the fund already raised over $20 million for that purpose late last year. “Right now we are ascertaining and processing the whole list of contributors,” Armenia spokeswoman Hasmik Grigoryan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “I think this work will continue until December.” “If we take into account the fact that the sum raised at the latest telethon does not include the results of the upcoming gala, then we can conclude that it exceeds the result of last year’s telethon by $2 million,” said Grigoryan. Hayastan raised a record-high $35 million in 2008. Moscow-based businessman Samvel Karapetyan donated $15 million of that. The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund headquartered in Yerevan said the final figure may prove to be higher after it completes the tabulation of donation pledges received from Armenians in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
