Armenian advocacy efforts in Europe and Mideast get $5 million boost

Funds raised in Dubai for ARF activities

Leaders of other parties among donors

by Tatul Hakobyan

Published: Friday February 06, 2009

Catholicos Aram I speaks at a gala fund raiser in Dubai for the ARF's advocacy efforts. Yerevan -

Benefactors from a range of organizations joined traditional constituents in pledging $5 million in support of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's political activities in Europe (including Russia), in the Middle East, and in international organizations, at a gala benefit held February 2 at the Intercontinental Hotel-Festival City Hotel in Dubai. Funds raised at the event, presided over by Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilcia, and attended by hundreds of supporters, surpassing the proceeds from previous quadrennial fundraising banquets held in Geneva in 2001 and in Paris in 2005.

The Armenian Cause is the shared agenda of Armenians regardless of country of residence and political affiliation, Catholicos Aram said. He welcomed the decision of the Armenian government to continue pursuing the universal affirmation of the Armenian Genocide as part of its foreign policy agenda.

Participants and donors included Gagik Tsarukian, who heads the Prosperous Armenia Party, and Ara Abramyan, who heads the Union of Armenians of Russia.

Acknowledging the diversity of the participants in the event, Hrant Markarian, representative of the ARF's governing Bureau, said the Armenian Cause united people regardless of their political beliefs. The Armenian Cause "has united all of us. Practical work, which is above day-to-day issues and differences, has united us. Work, which is geared to empowering Armenia and Armenians, to accumulating and organizing our collective power, to becoming a factor to be reckoned with in the world," said Mr. Markarian.

Offices in Washington, Brussels, Moscow, Beirut, and Tbilisi "coordinate and marshal the efforts of Armenians and our friends toward elevating Armenia's political stature internationally, securing economic assistance to Armenia, defending the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, bringing about international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, and countering Turkish and Azerbaijani anti-Armenian propaganda," he said.

The Armenian Reporter's Tatul Hakobyan asked Giro Manoyan, director of the ARF Bureau's Central Hai Tad and Political Office in Yerevan, for more details.

Tatul Hakobyan: Why did the event take place in Dubai?

Giro Manoyan: The fundraising in Dubai was the third such event. The first was held in 2001 in Geneva; the second in 2005 in Paris. The goal of these events was and is to raise funds for the ARF's Hai Tad (Armenian Cause) political activities in Europe (including Russia and the CIS) and in the Middle East. The locations of these events have been chosen taking this fact into consideration. The last two events were held in Europe and it was time to hold one in the Middle East. Dubai was chosen for practical purposes, taking into consideration the fact that a significant number of the invitees were from Armenia, the Middle East, and the Russian Federation, and visa and flight arrangements for them are easier to Dubai.

TH: So the event did not take place outside Armenia so that official Yerevan could deny being part of the effort to secure universal affirmation of the Armenian Genocide. (Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey claimed just last week, "The Armenian diaspora is plotting," but "the current administration in Armenia doesn't take part in this.") With Armenia and Turkey engaged in high-level talks, fundraising in Armenia for the Armenian Cause could be viewed badly by Turkey. Was this a consideration in choosing Dubai?

GM: The ARF holds a lot of its partywide events - world congresses, youth camps, Hai Tad Committees' conferences - in Armenia for obvious reasons. But these fund-raising events, as I said before, are specifically for Hai Tad-related political activities in the diaspora, specifically Europe and the Middle East, and the ARF Bureau has decided to hold these events in the diaspora.

But, to demonstrate to everyone that these activities are not only supported by Armenians in the diaspora, but also by Armenians from Armenia, since the 2001 fund raising, businesspeople from Armenia as well as from Russia and Ukraine have been invited. The Geneva event was the first time ever that businesspeople from Armenia donated to a project being realized in the diaspora - in this case, to the establishment of the Hai Tad office in Brussels. Furthermore, the former and current presidents of Armenia, Robert Kocharian and Serge Sargsian, have supported these events. In this year's case, the president not only sent a congratulatory message to the participants in the event, but one of his brothers, Levon Sargsian, was seated at the head table. Finally, at the event in Dubai, Hrant Margarian, the chairperson of the ARF Bureau publicly thanked President Sargsian for his support, "without which we would not have the success that we have."

All this was and is done publicly and if the prime minister of Turkey is not aware of the role that official Yerevan plays in Hai Tad activities, including but not limited to Genocide recognition, then I think he either has a poor intelligence-gathering service (after all, all of this is public information) or what he says about Armenia and the diaspora not working together in their efforts for Genocide recognition is wishful thinking. I tend to believe it is the latter. Technically speaking, what Erdogan said regarding Armenia-Turkey negotiations and his take on the role of the diaspora came a day or so earlier than the event in Dubai and the publishing of President Sargsian's message, which, by the way, is dated January 26, that is before the Sargsian-Erdogan meeting. Anyway, after their meeting in Davos and our event in Dubai, President Sargsian addressed the Armenian community in Zurich, where he reiterated that "establishment of relations with Turkey does not mean forgoing the Genocide; establishment of relations with Turkey does not mean subordination of our national interests to some other issues."