IN KARABAKH THEY ARE EAGER TO KNOW WHY ARMENIA FOUNDATION DOES NOT HURRY

Lragir.am
01 Aug 06

The society in Nagorno Karabakh is worried why Armenia Foundation (All-Armenia Fund, Inc.) does not hurry to start the reconstruction of Martakert, for which 7 million dollars were raised during the November 2005 telethon. The Lragir has wrote about this for several times, pointing to the controversies between the NKR government and the leadership of Armenia Foundation. We have written that the Karabakh government does not want Naira Melkumyan to continue to be the chief executive of the foundation. The prime minister of Karabakh announced two months ago that the foundation is to blame for postponing the project of reconstruction of Martakert. Afterwards the foundation made an official release on the reconstruction of the project of Martakert.

The Karabakhopen.com published an article by Murad Petrosyan, the editor of the Chto Delat Newspaper in Stepanakert where the author says the reason of the slow pace of the foundation is that in the Armenian reality moral reputation, sense of duty and organizational abilities are overlooked in appointing key officials.

"If Ms. Melkumyan, the executive director of Armenia Foundation possessed the abovementioned traits, would she sit on 5 million dollars, which have a definite addressee, for 8 months?" asks Murad Petrosyan.

He says the later construction of infrastructure in Martakert is put out to tender and the longer the money for construction remains in the bank, the more income the money will bring. "And if now Ms. Melkumyan pays herself a salary of 2000 U.S. dollars, soon she will be able to increase this sum up to 3-4 thousand. If presently she has three managers and three assistants, soon she will be able to increase their number up to 6," writes Murad Petrosyan. However, he says, it would be wrong to blame only Naira Melkumyan for the slow reconstruction of Martakert.

"First of all, the one who appointed her is to blame. Second, the NKR government and NKR President Ghukasyan are to blame for this situation, as well as the government of Armenia, and especially Robert Kocharyan, who is the president of the board of trustees of Armenia Foundation," thinks Murad Petrosyan.

According to him, the laziness of the president of the board of trustees would be explicable if only Artsakh were dissatisfied with the activities of the foundation. Murad Petrosyan says, however, that complaints were heard on the airwaves of Radio Liberty, which is broadcast in the large Armenian Diasporan communities. Murad Petrosyan writes that this is the reason why he cannot understand the calm attitude of Robert Kocharyan towards all this, especially that soon there will be another telethon for Shushi and Hadrut.