{"id":288668,"date":"2018-12-03T23:46:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T19:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epress.am\/?p=288668"},"modified":"2018-12-05T23:47:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T19:47:11","slug":"armenia-tvs-compulsory-patriotism-and-armenia-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2018\/12\/03\/armenia-tvs-compulsory-patriotism-and-armenia-fund.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenia TV\u2019s Compulsory Patriotism and \u201cArmenia\u201d Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For years, Armenia TV company has been airing not only the fundraising telemarathon of the Armenia Fund, but has devoted many programs to glorify this institution. This year, however, the TV company refused to air the 21st telemarathon under the pretense of non-expediency.<\/p>\n

Days before the telemarathon, Armenia TV would normally advertise the importance of donating money to reconstruct Armenia and Artsakh. This initiative would be presented as the sole aim and dream of all Armenians. \u201cTake part in strengthening the homeland, join the national telemarathon of donating to the All-Armenian Armenia fund\u201d, would\u00a0be advertised<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on Armenia TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fund is an exceptional institution and has proven by its work that it is possible to have an apolitical and pan-national organization enjoying a high rate of confidence and efficiency that satisfies everyone,\u201d would be fervently pronounced<\/span><\/a> by Artak Alexanyan, Armenia TV host and journalist\u00a0 at a TV program dedicated to Armenia Fund\u2019s Board of Trustees meeting.<\/p>\n

It was only a year ago that the TV company produced a video dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Fund. Serj Sargsyan, head of state at that time and Chairman of the Fund\u2019s Board of Trustees, visited the office of the Fund and gave a speech on the importance of the Fund. \u201cThe mission of the Fund is to help Armenia and Artsakh to overcome problems, to stand by the Armenian man.\u201d He\u00a0mentioned\u00a0that transparency was the Fund\u2019s mode of operation.<\/p>\n

It was on Armenia TV\u2019s air that Karen Karapetyan, Prime-Minister of the time, decided<\/span><\/a> to\u00a0show off and donate his one year salary to the Fund.<\/p>\n

In one of its many programs dedicated to Armenia Fund, Armenia TV featured Ara Vardanyan, director of the Fund and \u201cthe idea of charity.\u201d The produced video was speaking about Vardanyan having guess lectured at Brusov University and having spoken with students of the necessity and importance of charity. \u201cThe Fund has embarked on promoting the idea of charity, which in Armenia is not so wide-spread, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their ode to Vardanyan, Armenia TV was reporting that his mission was to be a philanthropist. His charity mission was interrupted in July this year when the National Security Service found out that he had used the Fund\u2019s bank account card in casinos. Vardanyan, who headed the Fund for over 10 years, was arrested with an accusation of money embezzlement, abuse of a public organization servant\u2019s powers. He was bailed out on July 5th.<\/p>\n

Vardanyan did admit that he was in possession of the 25mln AMD credit card given to the Fund, he also acknowledged that he used the money available on the card for personal purposes, including in online casino bets. However, he later returned the amount used for personal purposes to the accounts where donated money was kept. He made cash deposits in the Fund\u2019s accounting department in order to conceal embezzlement of the Fund\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

Only between 2016 and 2018 Vardanyan transferred 130mln AMD from the Fund\u2019s bank card to online casinos.<\/p>\n

After the embezzlement scandal of Vardanyan, Haykak Arshamyan was appointed chief executive officer of the Fund.<\/p>\n

Normally the Fund turns to TV companies to air the telemarthon, which do it for free as their own contribution.<\/p>\n

In a conversation with Epress.am, the Fund\u2019s press department mentioned that this year the telemarathon was broadcast by the Public TV company and Yerkir Media TV channel. In 2018, the Fund did not turn to Shant TV company, \u201cas the coverage provided by the other TV companies was sufficient.\u201d The Fund also turned to Armenia TV, and received a rejection.<\/p>\n

For days, Epress.am was trying to contact the TV company to find out the reasons for this rejection as it had always broadcast the telemarathon and had advertised the Fund. Every time, we would be told that a return phone call would be made in a few hours, however we never received feedback.<\/p>\n

Armenia TV company is part of the Pan-Armenian Media group. The media group was established in 2012 including the leading broadcast media – Armenia TV, ATV, ArmNews; radio channels \u2013 Radio Jan, LavRadio; print media \u2013 TV Mall; online media \u2013 Tert.am and blognews.am; as well as an official TV company in the USA \u2013 PanArmeniaTV.<\/p>\n

The media group is headed by Mikayel Minasyan, Serj Sargsyan\u2019s son-in-law and former ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The produced video was speaking about Vardanyan having guess lectured at Brusov University and having spoken with students of the necessity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":288595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10,66041],"tags":[71138,13091,66890,71139],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}