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08/16/2004
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1) ARF Rep. Markarian Concludes Visit to Egypt
2) Martirosyan Gets US Boxing’s Second Win
3) Vatican Stirs Debate on Turkish EU Membership
4) Putin To Meet Ukrainian and Armenian Presidents in Sochi
5) Opening of “One Nation, One Culture” Pan-Armenian Cultural Festival
6) Two Dead As Georgia Ceasefire Crumbles

1) ARF Rep. Markarian Concludes Visit to Egypt

CAIROOn Wednesday, August 11, ARF Bureau representative Hrant Markarian
concluded a four day trip to Cairo. During the visit, Markarian had the
opportunity to address the community and meet with local ARF representatives.
He also announced plans for the establishment of a Middle East Hai Tahd
office,
which will work with the offices located in the United States, Russia and
Europe.

2) Martirosyan Gets US Boxing’s Second Win

ATHENS (AP)–Vanes Martirosyan erased any doubts about the legitimacy of his
spot in Athens, battering Algeria’s Benamar Meskine in a 45-20 victory in the
preliminaries Sunday to earn a second-round match with Cuba’s Lorenzo Aragon.
“I finished like a champion,”said Martirosyan, an Armenian-born 18-year-old
from Glendale, Calif. “I could have won another four rounds, to tell you the
truth. I felt so good out there.”
Martirosyan showed the power and flair of a contender, dictating the fight’s
pace with a stiff jab and opportunistic combinations. He also counterpunched
effectively while landing more shots to the head than almost any competitor so
far at the busy boxing venue, which hosts more than 20 fights every day of the
preliminaries.
Tougher fights still loom for a team that’s thought to be among the
weakest in
the United States’ superb Olympic boxing history, but the boxers believe they
can improve on their mediocre four-medal haul four years ago in Sydney.
“We’re a great team, we’re in great shape and we’re going to bring a lot of
medals home,”Martirosyan said.
Martirosyan was one fight from elimination at the US team trials in February
in Tunica, Miss., but the two top contenders were disqualified when Andre
Berto
threw Juan McPherson to the canvas, injuring McPherson’s neck. McPherson was
medically disqualified, and Berto was banned for his actions.
Though he caught a lucky break, Martirosyan made the most of it by earning an
Olympic spot in the ensuing qualifying tournaments. Berto, from Winter Haven,
Fla., made the Olympics anyway on Haiti’s team–but Martirosyan beat Berto
in a
subsequent tourney.
“A lot of boxing fans and people in our organization were very well aware of
Vanes,”US coach Basheer Abdullah said. “There were a lot of predictions
that he
was going to make this team. He was very, very aggressive today. He dictated
what was happening in the fight.”
Martirosyan was cheered at Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall by his father,
Norik,
a former amateur fighter who moved his family to California when Vanes was 4;
his younger brother, Vatche; his uncle
and his cousin–and a bunch of fans from Glendale who showed up unannounced,
waving Armenian and American flags.
Aragon, whose victory over Greece’s Theodoros Kotakos was stopped on
points in
the third round, will be a stiff test for Martirosyan on Thursday. The 1996
Olympic featherweight is a two-time world champion as a welterweight, and he
beat Martirosyan in the Athens Test Event in May.
But Martirosyan was slugging point-for-point with Aragon until the fourth
round, when Martirosyan says he got overexcited by the prospect of an upset.
“We’re Armenian. We have this thing where we get a little bit out of control
in the ring,”Martirosyan said. “I love this sport so much. The coaches have
told me to calm down, just think about points instead of trying to get the guy
out of there.”
After a slow first minute against Meskine, Martirosyan landed the first of
many shots to the Algerian’s head. Martirosyan then staggered him with a
beautiful left hand early in the third round.
That punch effectively ended the fight. Meskine retreated to full-scale
defense while Martirosyan chased. Martirosyan scored 16 points in the final
round, putting his whole body behind his blows in
a vain effort to flatten Meskine.
Perhaps that Armenian instinct hasn’t completely been coached out of him–and
it will serve him well as a professional.
But first things first: Martirosyan finished third in the Athens Test Event,
and he isn’t keen on keeping that prize.
“I brought that bronze medal back so I could take the gold,”he said.

3) Vatican Stirs Debate on Turkish EU Membership

(EU OBSERVER)–Negative comments by a high-ranking Cardinal in the Vatican
about Turkish membership of the EU have once more stirred the controversial
debate.
In an interview last week with Le Figaro magazine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
said that Turkey is “in permanent contrast to Europe” and that linking it to
Europe would be a mistake.
To make his point he spoke of the Ottoman Empire’s incursions into the heart
of Europe in past centuries.
Cultural riches should not be sacrificed for the sake of economic riches, The
Cardinal is quoted as saying in Turkish media.
The German, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, said that Turkey, which is a predominantly Muslim secular republic,
should seek political union with Arab states and not with European countries.
He suggests it “could try to set up a cultural continent with neighboring
Arab
countries and become the leading figure of a culture with its own identity.”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected the Cardinal’s comments.
“The Vatican is a religious state. We are speaking to and making evaluations
with EU member countries,” said Erdogan, according to Zaman.
All of these comments come ahead of some crucial decision in the EU about
Ankara’s bid to join the bloc.
The European Commission will publish a report in October on Turkey’s
readiness
to join. On the basis of this report, EU leaders will make a decision in
December. But Turkey already has support from some influential countries in
the
EU-including the UK and Germany.

4) Putin To Meet Ukrainian and Armenian Presidents in Sochi

MOSCOW (AFP)–Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with his
Ukrainian and Armenian counterparts this week in the Black Sea resort of
Sochi,
where he is currently on holiday, the Kremlin said Monday.
Putin is due to hold talks Wednesday with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma
and Friday with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, a Kremlin spokeswoman
told
AFP Monday.
Putin’s meeting with Kuchma comes on the heels of a decision by Ukraine to
sign a three-year contract with the Russian-British oil company TNK-BP to
carry
Siberian oil through the Odessa-Brody pipeline.
The move thwarted European hopes that the pipeline would export oil from
Central Asia and the Caspian Sea to Europe, but was welcomed by the Kremlin.
Analysts said the move was the latest in a series that have seen the former
Soviet republic lurch back toward Moscow, after spending most of the
post-Soviet years reaching out toward the West, ahead of presidential
elections
in October 31.

5) Opening of “One Nation, One Culture” Pan-Armenian Cultural Festival

YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–On August 15, the opening of the “One Nation, One
Culture” Pan-Armenian cultural festival took place in the National Academic
Theater of Opera and Ballet.
President Robert Kocharian, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian, Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Hovik Hoveyan,
and other officials were present at the ceremony.
Greeting the participants, Oskanian called the festival a historic event and
emphasized: “Every generation living in its homeland or the diaspora should
reveal the depth and wealth of one united culture of the national originality
of his origin, should be newly filled with aesthetic and moral spirit of
national and human real values.”
Among the performers were the State Dance Ensemble of Armenia and the
“Barekamutiun” ensemble, dudukist Jivan Gasparian, singers Hasmik Papian,
Hasmik Hatsagortsian, Svetlana
Navasardian, Ruben Matevosian, actors Vladimir Abajian, Hovhannes Babakhanian,
Zhenia Avetisian, as well as other well-known Armenian artists.

6) Two dead as Georgia ceasefire crumbles

TBILISI (AFP)Two Georgian servicemen were killed and other casualties were
reported, officials said, in clashes that left a three-day-old ceasefire in
the
breakaway region of South Ossetia in tatters.
A spokesman for the Georgian interior ministry said the soldiers died after
coming under mortar and automatic weapons fire from irregular forces from the
South Ossetian territory.
The spokesman, Guram Donadze, also claimed that 15 Ossetian fighters were
killed in return fire from Georgian forces, but a South Ossetian spokeswoman
denied any fatalities.
“Fortunately, no one was killed,” in the overnight fighting, South Ossetia
spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news
agency. She added however that three civilians had been hurt.
RIA Novosti and other Russian news agencies confirmed the deaths on the
Georgian side and said that Georgian forces had also fired shells into a
district of South Ossetia’s main city, Tskhinvali, as well as three other
nearby villages.
A spokesman for the joint Georgian-Russian-Ossetian peacekeeping force in
South Ossetia was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying that the firing
“came from both sides and involved machine guns, mortars and grenade
launchers.”
The violence came three days after a ceasefire signed by the conflicting
parties as well as Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe went into effect in a renewed drive to defuse the crisis in the
region.
“We can say that the ceasefire has been practically violated,” said
Konstantin
Kochiyev, an adviser to South Ossetia’s self-styled president.
Tensions have soared and clashes have repeatedly broken out in the area over
the past two months as Georgia has stepped up pressure to bring separatist
regions back under its thumb. In June, President Mikhail Shaakashvili won a
local election in Adjara which returned control over the renegade region to
Georgia.
Inhabited mainly by ethnic Ossetians, South Ossetia has enjoyed de facto
independence after an armed conflict with Tbilisi following the break-up of
the
Soviet Union in 1991.
Leaders in South Ossetia have demanded either their own state or else
separation from Georgia and direct governance from Moscow.
Speaking to reporters in Tbilisi, Georgian Defense Minister Georgy Baramidze
warned that the conflict could worsen.
“There is unfortunately a real danger of war breaking out in the region,” he
said.
Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said Georgia was calling on the international
community to step in and help break the deadlock.
Georgia wanted the OSCE executive to hold an urgent meeting in the coming
days
on the situation in South Ossetia and President Mikhail Saakashvili would talk
with other leaders about organizing an international conference on the
conflict, he said.
“We are looking for a peaceful resolution,” Zhvania said, adding that he was
prepared to sit down for talks with South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard
Kokoity.
Georgian and Ossetian forces had already traded gunfire and shelling during
the night both Saturday and Sunday, when Tbilisi reported seven Georgian
soldiers had been wounded in the clashes.

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