Armenia Fund announces $30 million in pledges

Donors are based in Armenia and Russia

Weeks before annual telethon, 2007 record is smashed

Published: Tuesday November 04, 2008

Armenia Fund logo.

Yerevan - The Armenia Fund announced on November 3 that some 120 donors from Armenia and Russia had pledged some $30 million in donations to the fund during a dinner held in Yerevan on November 1 under the auspices of Armenia's President Serge Sargsian, who serves also as the chairperson of the fund's Board of Trustees.

The Armenia Fund said the contributions would be used primarily for the comprehensive development of rural areas in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The pledges were announced less than four weeks before the fund's annual telethon, scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, November 27. They surpass by far the pledges announced during last year's telethon, which amounted to $15 million. The acting director of the Armenia Fund, Ara Vardanian told the Armenian Reporter last week that $7.7 million of that total had been transferred to the Armenia Fund's account in Yerevan as of October 28, 2008.

During the 2007 telethon, the fund announced contributions of $1 million from donors in Armenia and another $800,000 from donors in Karabakh. The largest donation announced in 2007 was a pledge from the Russia-based entrepreneur Levon Hairapetian to invest $2.5 million, though not through the Armenia Fund.

According to the fund, pledges were made by Samvel Karapetian, Sergei Hambatzumian, Gagik Tzarukian, Seiran Karapetian, Genadi Stepanian, Ashot Khachaturian, Mikhail Baghdasarov, Samvel Aleksanian, Barsegh Beglarian, Tigran Arzakantsian, the Zangezur copper-molybdenum plant, the Mikayel Vardanian Foundation, the Eduardo Eurnekian Group, ArmRusGazProm, and Gharabagh Telecom. Details are to be announced during the telethon.