AGBU’s Melkonian Educational Institution -- The Truth and the Whole Truth

By Edward K. Boghosian
TAR Int’l Senior Editor

NEW YORK, NY – A little over two years ago, in October of 2001, this writer, during his frequent trips overseas, found time to travel to Cyprus for a brief visit between stops in Cairo and Athens. During the visit, he spent two full days at the AGBU Melkonian Institution (MEI) for the purpose of writing an article about this venerable institution, touching on the various options currently being considered by the AGBU leadership in New York. The article, unfortunately, triggered a widespread reaction among the worldwide alumni, many of whom are opposed to the possibility of closing the institution. There were other concerned Armenians who presented their own views on Melkonian.

During the heated debate, most of the articles were based on hearsay rather than reliable information about the 77-year-old facility, through whose doors as many as 1,500 students from various countries, mostly in the Middle East, have passed and graduated. Many of them have eventually served as active members of Armenian communities, some in leadership positions.

Over the last few months, this writer conducted interviews with knowledgeable people to obtain information on the school’s finances, as well as to find out whether the AGBU, as donee or legatee of brothers Krikor and Garabed Melkonian, had any legal obligation to maintain MEI. Garabed Melkonian had given almost everything he had and his late brother Krikor had left to him.

In the fiscal year 2002, MEI ran a deficit of $1,108,289, which was covered by the worldwide organization. The annual operating expenses had been $1,870,793, with the total school revenues amounting to $632,724, derived from tuition fees and other income. Added to this sum were $92,272, the subsidy of the government of Cyprus, which covered the tuition cost of Armenian students who are citizens of Cyprus, and an allocation of $37,508 from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Thus, it became very clear that, in 2002, the AGBU financed the tuition of 218 students at a cost of close to $5,000 per student, which is a record figure!

School statistics reveal that in academic year 2001-2002, 35 students came from the Republic of Armenia, 34 from Bulgaria, 25 from Greece, 6 from Romania, and a total of only 32 students from Middle Eastern countries. There were a few students from Albania, Canada, the United States, Russia and Sweden. Added to this number were some 69 day students from Cyprus.

In the early years of the school, however, most of the students hailed from the Middle Eastern countries. Although these students were fluent in the Armenian language, they still needed to polish their language skills.

There is a contentious issue about the use of close to $300,000 in net income that a commercial development on the site in Nicosia brings every year. The development consists of stores and offices built some years ago to generate income. The Central Board of the AGBU maintains that the property and the development are AGBU assets, belong to the worldwide organization and must serve the overall objectives and purpose of the AGBU, not the MEI alone. This approach is questioned by the MEI alumni, who claim that the income from the commercial development should be considered as part of MEI’s operating budget.

INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT 
Documents pertaining to the transfer of the K. and G. Melkonian brothers’ assets to the AGBU indicate that the AGBU is the absolute owner of the MEI property and is totally free to do with it whatever the AGBU deems necessary and prudent.

The surviving brother, Garabed Melkonian, had executed a contract, not a WILL, first with the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and then with the AGBU, to fulfill his donative intent in accordance with the law then in effect in Egypt.

The bottom line is that the Melkonian transfer is an outright gift to the AGBU, which has every right to discontinue the school in Cyprus, or to sell the property and establish new Armenian schools elsewhere, or other programs in support of Armenian heritage, despite the emotional outcry and protests of MEI alumni.

This notwithstanding, it would be timely and wise for the AGBU leadership, instead of making a hasty decision regarding the Melkonian Educational Institution, to form a committee of educators and scholars to come up with a policy statement with various options and suggestions regarding programs and projects aiming at involving the Armenian youth everywhere and preserving our heritage.

Simply closing down the venerable institution without a map for future actions and measures to meet new challenges facing the Armenian people will make no sense and will be totally counterproductive.

The times are tough for national self-preservation (azkabahbanum). We are confident that the AGBU leadership has the vision and dedication to honestly and honorably meet the challenges that lie ahead.