Saint Sarkis Charity Trust

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Gulbenkian-founded trust supporting St Sarkis church, London, and the Gulbenkian Library in Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter

Saint Sarkis Charity Trust

Logo Gulbenkian Library Jerusalem.jpg
Type Trust
Founded 1963-02-04 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 215352
Headquarters 50 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6PB
Area served Throughout England And Wales, Armenia, Israel
Key people Martin Sarkis Essayan (chair)
Website www.saintsarkis.org.uk


Saint Sarkis Charity Trust was set up by the late Calouste Gulbenkian by trust deed of 6 August 1954, amended by a scheme sealed on 26 March 1997, and registered on 4 February 1963; register areas are England and Wales, Armenia and Israel (PDF p.8).[1][2] Its trustees are Martin Sarkis Essayan (chair), Rita Vartoukian, Alec D'Janoeff, Teni Shahiean and William Essayan (appointed 12 June 2025), with a principal office at 50 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB.[2][1] It supports "the Armenian Church of Saint Sarkis in London and the Gulbenkian Library at the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem", works with the Barrow Cadbury Trust on prisoner projects, and uses the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (PDF p.4).[1] In the year to 31 March 2025 income was £250,181, charitable spending £260,816 and funds £12,631,650, of which endowment £12,130,807 (PDF p.11).[1]

Objects and activities

St Sarkis Armenian Church, Kensington, London (2015), which the trust supports

The charity's registered objects read: "(1)(A) TO PAY ·2,000 EACH YEAR TO THE SAID CHURCH OF ST. SARKIS (B) TO PAY ·500 EACH YEAR TO ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE IN JERUSALEM OR ANY APPOINTED LOCUM TENENS FOR THE TIME BEING OF THAT OFFICE FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE GULBENKIAN LIBRARY AT THE CONVENT OF SAINT JAMES ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE, JERUSALEM (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE LIBRARY)(2) SUBJECT TO THE PAYMENTS AFORESAID THE TRUSTEES SHALL APPLY THE INCOME OF THE CHARITY FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS THEY THINK FIT. (3) IF EITHER THE CHURCH OF SAINT SARKIS OR THE LIBRARY OR BOTH OF THEM SHALL HEREAFTER CEASE TO EXIST OR IF IN ANY YEAR THE TRUSTEES SHALL BE UNABLE FOR ANY REASON TO PAY AS AFORESAID THE SAID SUMS OF TWO THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS OR EITHER OF THEM THEN THE SUMS SO MADE PAYABLE IN EACH YEAR SHALL FALL INTO AND FORM PART OF THE BALANCE OF THE ANNUAL INCOME OF THE CHARITY AND SHALL BE APPLIED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF SUBCLAUSE (2) HEREOF."[2]

The register describes its activities as: "Principal objectives: support of the Armenian Church of Saint Sarkis in London and the Gulbenkian Library at the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem; other charities concerned with the Armenian Community in the UK and abroad. A few grants are also made to registered charities concerned with the welfare of prisoners in the UK, but the Trust does not accept unsolicited proposals for this priority."[2]

Register classifications: General Charitable Purposes.[2]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Throughout England And Wales, Armenia, Israel.[2]

Trustees

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[2]

Trustees of Saint Sarkis Charity Trust (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Martin Sarkis Essayan not recorded Yes —
Rita Alice Vartoukian not recorded Mihran Essefian Charitable Trust (Also Known As the Mihran and Azniv Essefian Charitable Trust) (275074); The Benlian Trust (277253)
Alec D'janoeff 2014-11-12 —
Teni Shahiean 2017-05-23 —
William Essayan 2025-06-12 —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2010-07-05 Paul Gulbenkian; Robert Brian Todd; Martin Essayan; Rita Alice Vartoukian [3]
2013-05-03 Paul Gulbenkian; Robert Brian Todd; Martin Essayan; Rita Alice Vartoukian [4]
2021-01-12 Rita Alice Vartoukian – also trustee of The Benlian Trust, Mihran Essefian Charitable Trust (Also Known As the Mihran and Azniv Essefian Charitable Trust); Martin Sarkis Essayan (chair); Alec D'janoeff (from 12 November 2014); Teni Shahiean (from 23 May 2017) [5]

Rita Alice Vartoukian is also a register trustee of The Benlian Trust (277253, profiled in batch 10) and the Mihran Essefian Charitable Trust (275074).[2]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-03-31 £153,140 £192,259
2022-03-31 £170,847 £263,860
2023-03-31 £198,331 £299,821
2024-03-31 £247,676 £194,013
2025-03-31 £250,181 £313,275

Source: register annual-return history.[2]

Archived accounts

Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:

  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2006[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2007[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2008[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2009[9]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2010[10]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2011[11]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2012[12]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2014[13]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2015[14]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2016[15]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2017[16]
  • Accounts for the year ended 31/03/2018[17]

Funding in Israel

  • FY2025 "Fees re Jerusalem Library" £23,963 (2024: £30,254), including a yearly grant to the curator; other grants – Vulnerable Women Empowerment Project £68,398, Kapan Math Club £33,043, Barrow Cadbury Trust £30,000, Junishian £25,780, We Are Our Mountains £18,830, Centre for Armenian Information and Advice £17,270, London Armenian Poor Relief Society Trust £17,000, ACT UK summer schools £14,900 and the Armenian Church of St Sarkis £2,000 – serve Armenian objectives in the UK and Armenia (PDF p.4–5, 18).[1]

Israeli partners

The Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian Patriarchate, which holds more than 120,000 works and about 4,000 manuscripts (PDF p.4);[1] the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation describes it as "one of the richest libraries in the Old City of Jerusalem", in the Armenian Quarter.[18]

Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF

Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
Finding Confidence
The library is in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem,[18] territory that UNESCO's World Heritage Committee treats as occupied, referring to "Israel, the occupying Power".[19] The support is for an Armenian religious and cultural institution, not settlement activity.[1] High – Old City of Jerusalem (Armenian Quarter)

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated.[1]

Controversies and regulatory action

  • No Charity Commission inquiry, Official Warning or Gazette insolvency notice naming this charity was found, and its register entry shows no regulatory alert;[20] it is not among the charities named in the Commission's cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements (May, September and December 2025) or in the September 2026 statement of results.[21][22][23][24] The charities in the Commission's settlements class inquiry (opened August 2026) have not been named, so it is not known whether this charity is among them.[25]
  • Dispute with the Armenian Church. The trustees, with the Parish Council and the Primate, "raised concerns with the Charities Commission about some substantial changes proposed by the Trustees of the Armenian Church to their governing document", and "the Charity Trustees have suspended all payments to the Armenian Church besides the £2,000 pa minimum" (PDF p.4, 24).[1]
  • Withdrawn Jerusalem project. Accumulated income is large "because the Trustees set aside funds for a project at the Gulbenkian Library in Jerusalem which was subsequently withdrawn"; £300,000 was taken from the unapplied total return (PDF p.24).[1]
  • Duplicated filing. The filed PDF contains the accounts twice (pages 1–31 repeated as 35–65); page references here are to the first copy.[1]

Other registers and records

Scotland and Northern Ireland

No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 14 October 2026, searched by name).[26] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[27]

The Gazette

Searches of The Gazette notice feeds (all notices, insolvency and company) for the charity's name found no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice.[28]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[29]

Sanctions screening

The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees and officers named in the accounts read for this profile and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (UK sanctions ID RUS1127) does not appear among this charity's trustees or officers.[30]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[2] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[31]

Parliament

Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Saint Sarkis Charity Trust", "Saint Sarkis" returned 0 contributions in total.[32]

Web archive

  • saintsarkis.org.uk: 12 yearly captures, first 2009-05-27, last 2025-02-20.[33]

The UK Government Web Archive holds 2 archived Charity Commission register pages used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Charity reporting is up to date" and "Other regulators: No information available".[5]

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Charity Commission, Saint Sarkis Charity Trust (215352): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 15 October 2026 ("PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification), extract dated 14 October 2026.
  3. ↑ Register entry 215352, contact and trustees (capture of 20100705) UK Government Web Archive.
  4. ↑ Register entry 215352, contact and trustees (capture of 20130503) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Register entry 215352, full print (capture of 20210112) UK Government Web Archive.
  6. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2006-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110927).
  7. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2007-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110927).
  8. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2008-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110927).
  9. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2009-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110927).
  10. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2010-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20110927).
  11. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2011-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20120504).
  12. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2012-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20130503).
  13. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2014-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200105).
  14. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2015-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200105).
  15. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2016-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200105).
  16. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2017-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200105).
  17. ↑ Saint Sarkis Charity Trust accounts, year ended 2018-03-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200105).
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, The Armenians and Jerusalem gulbenkian.pt, 25 June 2024, retrieved 15 October 2026 ("Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter is one of the four main neighbourhoods of the Old City"; the Gulbenkian Library, inaugurated in 1932, "is also considered one of the richest libraries in the Old City of Jerusalem").
  19. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Committee, Decision 48 COM 7A.4: Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2026, viewed 14 October 2026 (refers to "Israel, the occupying Power" and to works "in East Jerusalem, particularly in and around the Old City of Jerusalem").
  20. ↑ Charity Commission, Register of Charities, charity overview page (register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/ followed by the organisation number) for each of the 25 batch-11 charities, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026 and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section; none was shown for any of them. The pages showed reporting status (for example "Charity reporting is up to date (39 days late)" for British Friends of Rambam Medical Centre, "(4 days late)" for British Friends of Aleh and "(11 days late)" for Urgent Projects).
  21. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  22. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
  23. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
  24. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date), both retrieved 15 October 2026.
  25. ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026, retrieved 15 October 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
  26. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026, downloaded October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-11 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (the only hits were unrelated names such as J R Gibb Charitable Trust and Boleskine Community Care).
  27. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 15 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-11 charity names returned zero results).
  28. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Saint Sarkis' The Gazette, searched 15 October 2026.
  29. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-215352 360Giving, queried 15 October 2026.
  30. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-11 screening covered 386 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages (UK Government Web Archive), Companies House officers of the charitable companies and of related companies named in the accounts (GS Property Management Services, Igerville, Housefresh, Vitalina, Rochester Developments and Delapage), and trustees, examiners, donors and grant recipients named in the accounts read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; the only token matches were generic words in organisation names ("Trust", "Fund", "Israel", "Republic") and surname-only coincidences (Cohen, Levy, Friedman, Green, Said); lists downloaded October 2026.
  31. ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access in October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
  32. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Saint Sarkis" Hansard, queried 15 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).
  33. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for saintsarkis.org.uk Wayback Machine, queried 15 October 2026.
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