LOS ANGELES — The annual Thanksgiving Day fundraiser by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Telethon raised more than $12.5 million that it plans to mostly spend on the support of agricultural-development projects in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian Fund raised almost $15.5 million during last year’s televised fundraiser earmarked for the reconstruction of war-ravaged communities in Nagorno-Karabakh and other local infrastructure projects.
The focus of the 2017 telethon was support for two major agricultural-development projects in Nagorno-Karabakh: the drilling of deep-water wells and construction of irrigation networks; and the installation of solar power stations.
An anonymous Armenian-American entrepreneur made the single largest donation of $2.5 million. He was followed by Russian-Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetian, who donated $2.25 million. Armenia’s Copper-Molybdenum Plant donated $350,000, Armenia-based business owner Samvel Aleksanian contributed $200,000 for the cause and the Vardanian family donated $125,000. The Valex Group donated $100,000. Several families from the United States, Iran and Armenia provided hefty donations ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. Thousands of Armenians from around the world also made smaller contributions, ranging from a few dollars to several thousand dollars.
In recent years the fund has partly financed the construction of a second 116-kilometer-long highway connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
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