For Immediate Release ~ December 8, 2006
Contact: Sarkis Kotanjian ~ 818-243-6222
Following the conclusion of Armenia Fund’s 9th International Telethon, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian reaffirmed his support for the mission of the organization in the light of the record-breaking result of $13.7 million pledges. “I have always believed that the Armenia Fund, through its annual Telethons, and other means, is capable of rallying our people’s resources for Karabakh and for Armenia. The record amount collected from Armenia’s businessmen and from the generous Diaspora – is evidence that the Armenia Fund enjoys the people’s confidence, and that we are on the way to bringing the Armenia Fund’s work to a new level of effectiveness”, stated Oskanian.
Below is an excerpt from Foreign Minister Oskanian’s appeal to the global Armenian Diaspora during the 2006 Telehton.
“I am here to ask you to pick up the telephone and call. This is probably one of my easiest tasks as Armenia’s Foreign Minister.
I believe we are asking you to do something very natural and right. All of us here, today, are urging you to commit to strengthening Karabakh. I cannot imagine you would want anything less for Armenians in the 21st century. This is when we will have, for the first time in modern history, an independent, just, free, prosperous homeland. Armenia and Karabakh, together, will become the homeland of our dreams. But only, only, if we build our homeland together.
The soldiers won the war. Karabakh is ours. For the last decade and a half we have succeeded in convincing the international community that there is no other future for Karabakh. Today around the negotiating table, we are working to formalize this historic, legal, moral fact -- that Karabakh is Armenian. At the same time, Karabakh and Armenia, Armenia and Diaspora, together, must continuously demonstrate that Karabakh is a secure, democratic political entity and that it is viable.
If I were to say that the Diaspora has a huge role to play in that formula, I would be wrong. It would be more correct to say that the Diaspora has the greatest role to play in that formula. We say this so often that the urgency of it is sometimes lost. Don’t take this for granted. Don’t take Armenia or Karabakh for granted.
We have a unique opportunity to make a name for ourselves in the next millennium. In the first millennium, we were the world’s first Christian state. At the end of the second millennium, we had the unfortunate distinction of being the first nation to become the victim of genocide in modern times. Still, we prospered and thrived, but in other countries, because we didn’t have a country of our own.
We do now.
In this third millennium, we can become the first landlocked country that has won militarily, that has succeeded politically and that is flourishing economically, secure in its independent future, despite the desires of some of its neighbors.
This is the year, this is the decade when we must demonstrate that people are more valuable than oil. Oil in our region will peak and wane in two decades. But systematic economic growth and our people’s commitment and strength will sustain us for far longer. That is how it has always been. What the Armenia Fund has already begun to do in Martakert will be replicated throughout Karabakh ¬ and in Armenia too. The Armenia Fund and the Diaspora together have brought Karabakh out of the devastation of war.
There is no longer a distinction between Armenia and Karabakh. What the residents of Karabakh’s and Armenia’s villages want and deserve is the opportunity to live independent lives, in dignity: the ability to work, to support their families, to defend their land and our land.
That is why we launched the Rural Poverty Eradication Program at the Armenia-Diaspora Conference two months ago: Armenia Fund and the Diaspora together will continue to do what the Armenia Fund has done for more than a decade: offering supplementary support in the form of comprehensive infrastructure and economic assistance, this time to Armenia’s rural communities, in order to create equal and fair opportunities for them to develop normally, today, in this generation. Creating economic opportunities, teaching good governance and offering the necessary skills ¬ these are essential to erase the deep development disparities that exist today between our cities and rural areas. These are essential for obvious military, political, economic strategic reasons. Therefore we will continue the Karabakh program as we begin to do similar work in Armenia’s border areas.
Support the work of the Armenia Fund, because Himnadram is more than helping people. It is building a country.
Armenia Fund, Inc., is a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation established in 1994 to facilitate large-scale humanitarian and infrastructure development assistance to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Since 1991, Armenia Fund has rendered more than $160 million in development aid to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia Fund, Inc. is the U.S. Western Region affiliate of "Hayastan" All-Armenian Fund. Tax ID# 95-4485698
