O P E N L E T T E R
Maitre Berj Setrakian
Chairman
AGBU CENTRAL BOARD
As I understand it, you are very particular and demanding to be addressed as
"Maitre" instead of "Sir". In compliance with your 'wish',
I have put the correct title.
But, what
about the 'wishes' of Aga Krikor
and Aga Garabed Melkonian, the greatest Armenian Benefactors of the 20th
Century? Are you and your 'master instigator' Mrs. Louise Simone-Manougian respecting their wishes and their Will?
What about
the ideals and the vision of Boghos Noubar Pasha, the founder of our beloved AGBU? Are you both
and members of the Central Board respecting the great benefactor's wishes?
Furthermore,
what about the ideals of the AGBU Benefactor Mr. Alex Manougian?
Did you not learn anything from this great gentleman? Apparently, he used to
shed tears when an Armenian school in the diaspora
was doomed for closure, as a last resort, despite the fact that the school in
question could not have been as significant and vital as the Melkonian Educational Institute.
Finally,
what about democracy? Do you have any respect at all towards this ideology? The
This is
democracy!
It is a
fact that, you and the members of the Central Board have not been
democratically elected, in accordance with the by-laws of the AGBU. Over the
past 15 years, you personally and emphatically encouraged the AGBU Chapters
world-wide for the elimination of the democratic process of elections of the
Central Board, in order to have a "Carte Blanche" for the affairs of
the AGBU, without being accountable to anybody. At the present, you nominate
each other and thus have transformed this great organisation into a
"private club" in a totalitarian atmosphere. In other words, you and
your 'honourable' colleagues are acting illegally. Is this the legacy of our
founder Boghos Noubar
Pasha?
Your
recent actions have proven beyond any reasonable doubt, that you have shown no
respect towards any of the AGBU Benefactors' wishes and wills, especially that
of Melkonian Brothers. Practically you have utterly
betrayed the trust of our Benefactors bestowed upon AGBU. So far as our
Diaspora in concerned, this evil contemplation of yours for the closure of this
vital establishment called 'Melkonian Educational
Institute" could easily be considered as an act of 'treason' against our
present and future generations and our nation as a whole.
In order
to justify this extremely damaging notion, you and your master have deliberately
misled our nation by withholding vital information and spreading totally
unfounded reasons for the closure of the Institute. And now you are about to
give the 'coup de gras' to this important educational
establishment. How can you and your colleagues run a humanitarian organisation
such as the AGBU on lies and deception?
First and
foremost, you do not own the Melkonian Educational
Institute. AGBU is merely there as "Trustee" or the
"Custodian" of the will the two brothers left to our nation. They
were sincere believers of Boghos Noubar
Pasha's vision. This was the only reason they trusted their will to AGBU.
Therefore, you are there to fulfil the "wishes" of the benefactors by
undertaking the maintenance and the well-being of the Institute for the benefit
of our generations to come, in order to preserve our national identity and
culture to the best of our abilities.
FINANCES
OF MELKONIAN EDUC. INSTITUTE
You have
claimed time and time again that MEI is incurring losses and that AGBU cannot
continue to sustain the maintenance and the running of the Institute and for
this reason, you are taking firm measures to close down the Institute.
This
declaration of yours is total and utter nonsense!
Mr. Haigashen Ouzounian categorically
denies this false statement of yours and has proved otherwise in his two
declarations. He is of the firm opinion that MEI is actually a self-sufficient
Institution and it is not in any way a burden to AGBU, as you blabber about it
all these years. After all, M. H. Ouzounian was the
only person in the Central Board, who meticulously looked after the interest of
MEI. He is a 'Melkoniantsi' and has respect towards
our Benefactors and knows the importance of MEI.
Albeit,
let us examine the facts closely.
First of
all, let us assess the extent of the wealth Aga Krikor and Aga Garabed Melkonian left in 1925.
The vast
land and the construction of buildings on the premises did cost £30,000.00 at
the time. The entire estate comprised of: two main buildings, the villa, the
kitchen and teacher's quarters, the water tower, the clinic, the swimming pool,
another residential compound opposite the villa, the compound of the mechanical
department, the stables, the pigsty, the football, basket ball and volley ball
grounds etc.
The actual
land extended to the opposite side of the conifer forest in front of the main
buildings, which was 'disposed' of years ago. No accounts were published by
AGBU to this effect. To the best of my knowledge, the Management of MEI and the
Central Board failed to declare the reasons for the sale and did not disclose
the amount of the proceeds and where the revenues were allocated.
The two
Benefactors also left a cash fund of approximately £700,000.00 (Pounds
Sterling) in 1925. This was an enormous sum of money at the time, which could
be valued in modern terms at least £1,500,000,000.00 (one and a half Billion
Pounds Sterling or about 2.7 Billion U.S. Dollars). That was the buying power
of the amount left for the maintenance and running of the MEI in present conversion.
During
1960's the above amount, which was in a Bank in
I am sure
everybody will observe the enormous deficit incurred on the amount left by the
Benefactors. It is apparent that the Central Board of AGBU has done absolutely
nothing for the protection of the value of these funds.
In a
normal business if the management failed to preserve the wealth of a company,
they will be sacked immediately, whereas you, as member of the Central Board,
are still there...
As
trustees of the will, the AGBU Central Board and the Management had the duty
and obligation to protect the value of these funds, which was donated for a
divine cause, that is, to extend good education to generations of young
Armenians. Over the past 80 years no action whatsoever has been taken towards
this commercially important aspect. It is common sense, nothing more nothing
less! I have no doubt in my mind that had it been your own personal wealth, you
would have done everything in your power for the preservation of such funds. It
is most unfortunate that the Central Board solely has relied on the interests
received from the Bank for the running of the Institute. Is this right in your
opinion, Maitre Setrakian?
As I
recall, in the early 1960's the total budget of MEI was about £110,00.00 for the whole year, when the majority of the students
did not pay any tuition fees nor for any other necessities. However, the
interest accrued during the same period was believed to have been much higher.
The unused portion of the interest was not accumulated towards the growth of
the MEI capital. Apparently, the surplus of interest was allocated to other
AGBU schools in the
Of course
it is difficult to demonstrate the exact figures, because AGBU has never
published a Balance Sheet of MEI to the Armenian people in the diaspora, who are the rightful proprietors and heirs of the
Institute. The Armenian people had and still have the moral right to see the
accounts of Armenian Trusts, because such trusts are created for our people and
that the activities and transactions should be in the public domain and those
responsible should be accountable.
From these
facts one would only conclude that over the past 8 decades the management of
AGBU has utterly failed in its mission, especially making a mess of the wealth
of Melkonian Brothers, by not only letting the very
large amount left in their trust devalued to a mere 5.5 million Dollars, but
also for taking such a ludicrous decision for the closure of MEI. In other
words, you have utterly betrayed the trust bestowed upon you by the Benefactors
and the Armenian nation in general.
What are
you trying to hide, Maitre Setrakian? The Armenians
would like to know the truth.
It is not
an easy task to occupy and chair an important establishment such as the AGBU.
One must have total dedication towards the ideals of our founder Boghos Noubar Pasha, with
absolute integrity, fairness and firm belief in the education of our young
generations. Your past and present records towards these goals simply
demonstrate total absence of these virtues apt for a leader. Your irresponsible
approach to our national interests has failed you in winning the trust of our
people at large.
Now let us
sum up some figures to ascertain the self-sufficiency of MEI, which you so
vehemently deny.
The
figures I have taken are the minimum achievable amounts, although it is highly
probable that they are much higher in actual fact.
Approximate
revenues:
- TUITION FEES : ABT. USD 500,000.00
- REVENUES (RENT FROM LEASE) : ABT. USD 500,000.00
- GRANT (CYPRIOT GOVERNMENT) :
-
SUB. TOTAL : ABT. USD 1,190,000.00
- INTEREST @4% ON USD 5,500,000.00 : ABT. USD 220,000.00
TOTAL : ABT. USD 1,410,000.00
Note: It has been said that the government of
Mind you,
you have declared the annual budget of MEI to be USD 1,250,000.00, in other
words, USD6,000.00 per student.
In view of
the above, and without going any further one can
observe that MEI is really self-sufficient financially.
Nevertheless,
let us explore the possibilities of generating additional revenues, by cutting
down on the expenditure.
The main
expense lies on the annual salaries of the principal (USD 100,000.000) and the
teaching staff consisting of 30-35 teachers.
The
principal's remuneration is exorbitant considering the standard of living in
the
Secondly,
considering the number of students and the number of classes, it is not
feasible to keep an army of teachers, who are mostly employed on the basis of
favouritism.
It is not
difficult to demonstrate the actual number of teachers required for MEI, which
should not exceed 18 teachers, based on their contractual terms and conditions.
By
adopting this method, the expenditure on teachers' salaries could be reduced by
about USD 300,000.00 per annum.
Food for
the boarding students was about C£0.72 per head per day about 10-12 years ago.
If one takes the inflation factor into account, it should now read something between C£1.10 to C£1.20 per head per day. For about 200
students this should reflect at about C£230.00 or USD460.00 per day, which
should come to about C£62,100.00 or USD124,200.00 per
year considering only 9 months of school.
Maintenance
of the school, including eventual repairs, should not exceed USD 100,000.00 per
year annum.
Therefore,
considering the above, MEI's annual EXPENDITURE
should read as follows:
- SALARIES : ABT. USD 432,000.00
- FOOD : ABT. USD 124,200.00
- MAINTENANCE : ABT. USD 100,000.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURE : ABT. USD 656,200.00
Let us add another USD100,000.00 for the margin of errors and omissions, THE
MAXIMUM EXPENDITURE OF MEI SHOULD NOT EXCEED USD756,000.00 PER YEAR.
Therefore:
- TOTAL MINIMUM INCOME : ABT. USD 1,410,000.00
- TOTAL MAXIMUM EXPENDITURE : ABT. USD 756,000.00
TOTAL SURPLUS : ABT. USD 654,000.00
As per
this demonstration and taking into account the two declarations of Mr. Haigashen Ouzounian, Melkonian Educational Institute is totally self-sufficient
establishment and that your declaration that MEI is a 'burden' to AGBU is
totally unfounded.
If you and
your master want to feel 'great', why don't you close down one of Mary Manougian's schools? Their annual budget and expenditure is
four times greater than MEI and the final outcome of preparing good Armenians
for the preservation of our national culture and identity cannot be compared
with that of MEI. :
STANDARD
OF EDUCATION:
With some
genuine dedication to this matter, I cannot see any reason why the standard of
MEI should not be at its highest level. This entails the
ability, knowledge and understanding of the Educational Department of AGBU, in
preparing a proper curriculum for MEI, appoint a good and devoted
Principal, who should be well aware of our culture in all its aspects and that
of the education system of the
This is
not the big issue and can be achieved, provided there is goodwill and
determination to preserve and honour the Benefactors wishes.
The main
issue now is the indifference and the destructive policies of the Central Board
under your 'leadership'. These are extremely counterproductive so far as our
present and future generations are concerned. With this sort of mentality and
foolish actions, we shall lose our identity as Western Armenians forever. This
cannot and should not be tolerated at any cost.
The
message is clear Maitre Setrakian. The closure of MEI
has now become an international issue and whatever evil actions and more lies
you are contemplating about, you should be very careful indeed, because you and
your colleagues will be held fully responsible as 'criminals' and 'traitors' of
our nation.
I am sure, the Ottomans would have honoured you handsomely for
the continuation of the destruction of our people through your 'charitable'
deeds.
Yours
truly,
Dikran Vorperian
London