Author: Harutyunian Christine

ARMENIAN BUSINESSMAN’S DAUGHTER’S KIDNAPPING TO BE PREVENTED

Panorama.am
12:56 18/02/2009

The police officers managed to prevent "Luding" company director Arthur
Varjapetian’s 17-year-old daughter’s kidnapping in Moscow, writes "Ria
Novosti" news agency referring to legislative bodies. According to
the police officers the details of the operation were being organized
a few months earlier.

One of the arrested is the employee of the in-house affairs department
of Russia. Two different revolvers were found when the department
officer was revealed. According to the legislative bodies the arrested
leads a criminal group.

According to the source, the criminals followed a plan to demand 10
million euros from A. Varjapetyan to return her daughter back.

"Luding" is a company in Russia specialized in the production of
alcoholic drinks.

AZERBAIJAN KEEPS ON SPECULATING ON ‘KHOJALU’

ArmInfo
2009-02-16 11:38:00

ArmInfo. The Information Department of the Nagorny Karabakh Republic
Foreign Ministry has disseminated a report on the real events in the
populated area of Khojalu.

ArmInfo special correspondent to Stepanakert presents the report:
‘raditional anti-Armenian campaign related to the incidents of 1992
in the populated area of Khojalu has got underway in Azerbaijan. The
official Azerbaijani propaganda as before takes any possible measure
to lay the responsibility for the tragedy on the Armenian party and to
poison the international and public consciousness with another dose of
armenophobia. In addition, Baku still keeps on disseminating already
exposed false data on the incidents. Thus, last year the NKR Foreign
Ministry drew public attention to the false photo disseminated by some
Azerbaijani websites including on the web page of the authoritative
website in Azerbaijan ‘Heydar Aliyev Fund’ (). The
Ministry highlighted that the propaganda machine of the neighbor
state tries to use alongside with numerous casualties on the photo a
populated area in the background of it. This would give "truthiness"
to Baku’s version on mass killings of Azerbaijanis in Khojalu. In
the meanwhile, the color version of that photo refutes the given
allegation because of the appearance of the killed, their cloths
etc. In reality, the photo is directly relevant to the incidents in
Kosovo. Alongside with many other similar photos it was exhibited
at least on a Serbian, an Alban and a specialized forum, as well
as on the website of The New York Times and others. Nevertheless,
the given evident false photo is still available at many Azerbaijani
websites, which misleads the unaware visitors. Moreover, booklets
containing this false photo are spread across the world. The NKR
Foreign Ministry Information Department mentions that on February
25-26 1992 the Karabakh party organized a military operation to
deblock the only airport in the country located not far from the
populated of Khojalu and to render harmless the firing points of the
rival in Khojalu wherefrom the Azerbaijani OMON agents had regularly
attacked and fired at the populated areas of Karabakh since the spring
of 1991 from multiple launch rocket systems ‘Grad’ (Hail), Alazan and
Crystall rockets. Deblockading of the airport and rendering harmless
the firing points of the rival in Khojalu was of vital importance
for the NKR people.

Subdivisions of the NKR defence forces, that were storming Khojalu,
left a corridor for civilians to leave safely the battle actions zones,
and the Azerbaijani party was informed about it in advance. The NKR
authorities warned the Azerbaijani party about putting down the fire
points of Khojalu in advance, two months before its starting. This
was many times proved by Azerbaijani officials, in particular,
president Ayaz Mutalibov. But Azerbaijani authorities did nothing to
remove civilians from the battle actions zone. Moreover, the column
of civilians was fired near the border to the agdam region, which
later proved by Mutalibov having connected this criminal action with
the attempts of the opposition to withdraw him from the power making
him responsible for the incident. The territory, where the cadres
with numerous bodies of the killed people were photographed later,
is at three kilometers far from the town of agdam and 11 kilometers
far from Khojalu. Up to falling of Agdam in summer 1993 this territory
was always controlled by Azerbaijani forces, which ruled out access
of subdivisions of the Karabakh army there. Some details of this
military operation are still enveloped in mystery and official
Baku has been actively speculating with it to reach its political
goals. Incidentally, the whole propaganda has bright anti-Armenian
insinuations and is used to tighten ethnic intolerance and dislike to
Armenians among Azerbaijanis. We have to confess with regret that the
topic of "Khojalu" still remains the keystone of Azerbaijani internal
and external informational, to be correct, disinformational policy
in the context of the Karabakh conflict in general".’

TRADITIONAL ANTI-ARMENIAN CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED BY AZERBAIJAN

Panorama.am
13:21 16/02/2009

"Azerbaijan has started its traditional anti-Armenian campaign
over Khodjalou events in 1992. The official Azeri campaign takes
every measure to blame Armenian party in the tragedy by dripping
anti-Armenian poison into the consciousness of the international
society and native people," says the announcement made by the Foreign
Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh.

According to the release, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Nagorno
Karabakh focused native people’s attention on the false photo
putblished on Azeri web site, particularly, the web site of "Heidar
Aliev foundation" (). It is a falsified photo of
dead citizens with an image of a populated are in the back. That
photo is a Kosovo photo and it is published in Serbian, Albanian,
German nd famous "New York Times" web sites.

"It is significant that the campaign has marked anti-Armenian focuses
and is used to strengthen the ethnic intolerance and hate of Azeri
towards Armenians. Unfortunately, "Khodjalou" is the highlight of
Azeri inner and foreign policy," says the announcement.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenian sportsmen to participate in 9th European youth winter festival
14.02.2009 15:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 11 Armenian sportsmen will take part in the 9th
European youth Winter Olympic Festival due in Slask Beskidy, Poland,
from February 14 to 21.

The sportsmen will compete in slalom, downhill skiing, biathlon and
figure skating, the press office of the National Olympic Committee of
Armenia told PanARMENIAN.Net.

Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Armen Grigoryan met with the
young sportsmen before the departure to wish them good luck.

RUSSIA, TURKEY INTERESTED IN CAUCASUS AND BLACK SEA REGION SECURITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.02.2009 16:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The events of August 2008 proved the importance of
Caucasus countries’ consolidation, Russian President said.

"It also showed that we should cope with Caucasus problems without
interference of non-regional powers," Dmitry Medvedev told a news
conference after talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.

"Both Russia and Turkey are interested in secure Caucasus and Black
Sea region and we welcome the initiatives advanced by our Turkish
counterparts," he said, adding that these initiatives can facilitate
resolution of economic, transport and energy problems, RIA Novosti
reports.

CAN TURKEY KICK FOOTBALL RACISM OUT OF THE STADIUMS?

Hurriyet
Feb 12 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – While European football is trying to prevent racism, Turkey
mostly tends to wash its hands of it and see the glass as half full. It
may be true that there is little racism about skin color, but with
recent abusive remarks toward Israeli player Pini Balili and former
referee Oguz Sarvan, Turkish football hardly has the cleanest record.

With football’s top countries under scrutiny for racism, the question
arises in Turkey as well, whether the country is immune or simply deaf,
dumb and blind to the problem.

If you ask that question to fans, footballers or administrators of
the game, you will probably hear that there is no danger of racism
in Turkish football, but is there really?

In 2006, Turkish sports journalists were trying to hype up stories of
Fenerbahce signing world-class footballer Samuel Eto’o. Maybe there
was no official offer from Fener to the striker’s club Barcelona, but
who cares? Turkish journalists, who can match their Western tabloid
counterparts in fake news and being paid for their imagination,
were fast to create the link and made an open call to Eto’o.

"He is believed to be warming to the idea of coming to Turkey, as
there is no racism to bother him here," the papers wrote without
citing any resources.

Eto’o famously walked off the pitch after Real Zaragoza fans shouted
constant racist slogans at him during a La Liga game on Feb. 25,
2006. Yes, he was fed up with racism, but was it really true that
Turkey was clean in that regard? This is only an illusion, says sports
writer İbrahim Altınsay.

"There are some clichÂ~Ns in Turkey," said Altınsay at a panel
titled "Racism in Sports" organized by the Stop Racism platform. "The
sentence, ‘There is no racism in Turkey,’ is one of those," he said. A
columnist at daily Radikal, Altınsay believes the clichÂ~N is a
result of the word "racism" being misleading in Turkish.

"When people hear the word ‘racism,’ they only think about ethnicity,"
he said. "A more comprehensive word should be used, such as
discrimination. There is discrimination toward women, homosexuals,
Armenians, Kurds, Alevis and others. It’s the ‘us and them’ type
of discrimination."

‘We are all black’ If we are limiting the subject to discrimination
by skin color, it may be true that there are no racist tendencies in
Turkey. Ask any football fan and they will remember how BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_
fans stood up for their Pascal Nouma. One week after referee Ali
Aydın referred to the French striker as "the black player," the
İnönu Stadium was filled with banners that read, "Hepimiz zenciyiz,"
which means, "We are all black."

The slogan quickly became a catchphrase in social life and was used
to support anyone suffering from discrimination, most famously in
protests of the assassination of the Armenian-Turkish journalist
Hrant Dink. Banners reading, "We are all Armenians" in Turkish and
Armenian were raised in the air during the rallies.

But it may be deceptive as well, as racism is more than just skin deep.

For example, a debate sparked when Genclerbirligi coach Samet Aybaba
made a notorious comment about his player, Abdel Zaher El Saka, "This
country prefers an Arab over me." Most recently, Sivasspor’s Israeli
striker Pini Balili has been the subject of racially abusive remarks.

During the gameagainst Sivas, Galatasaray fans yelled "damn Israel"
in their chants before cursing at Balili.

Another columnist at Radikal, BagıÅ~_ Erten, believes football’s
dynamics differ from the rest of society.

"When Israeli Haim Revivo played for Fenerbahce there were such
protests," said Erten. "After his move to Galatasaray, there were
similar slogans, only coming from the other side."

"If Balili was playing for Galatasaray, then the fans and team would
try to protect him and the other teams would start to shout racist
slogans," Erten said.

Football and genocide On a heavier note, following claims of injustice
toward their team, Trabzonspor supporters threatened the Central
Refereeing Committee, or MHK, Chairman Oguz Sarvan with the slogan,
"Armenian Oguz, genocide for you!"

"Whatever is in the society is reproduced in stadiums and sometimes
in a more violent way," said Altınsay. "And some things said remain
in use long after the game."

Erten was shocked to see there were no legal investigations for that
remark, let alone charging those who were responsible.

Turkish Football Federation regulations are broad enough to kick
racism out of the game but despite Chairman Mahmut Ozgener’s warning to
avoid racist remarks in protests, no official investigations were made.

"It is in the books. There are enough rules to penalize a team for
racist abuse, but nothing has happened yet," said Erten.

Racist remarks are often made just to annoy the other team, but it is
still dangerous. Sivas coach Bulent Uygun tried to protect Balili by
trying to show that he is "one of us." But Altınsay said the move was
"even worse," as if a foreign player canonly continue his life only
by proving he is like a Turk. "The fact is discrimination has become
an inseparable part of sports," said Altınsay.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, according to Erten, due
to the "immunity" of football.

"Tax fraud is immoral, but when clubs do it, fans accept it," he
said. "Or you get beaten by police if you want a workers’ union,
but everybody admires if you stand up to say there should be a union
for footballers."

And that can be the starting point. Just like Turkish people started
to discuss the notion of nationality after Marco Aurelio of Brazilian
descent was granted Turkish citizenship and became eligible to play
for the national team.

And football can be a strange metaphor for life, when 11 people get
to play for the same target, no matter how different they are.

"Just like society, football is a ground where differences live among
each other," said Altınsay. "Maybe there should be a team with a
homosexual goalkeeper, Armenian right back, Kurdish and Alevi center
backs, etc. The problem could be solved."
–Boundary_(ID_md9vuJFcX3Zo7fuLtOzCy g)–

HOVHANNES MARGARIAN: THERE ARE NO ESSENTIAL DISAGREEMENTS BETWEEN COALITION MEMBER POLITICAL FORCES

Noyan Tapan

Feb 11, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. On the threshold of the anniversary
of establishment of the ruling coalition we can state that there are
no essential disagreements in the coalition consisting of four parties.

Hovhannes Margarian, a member of the RA National Assembly Orinats
Yerkir (Country of Law) faction, stated at the February 11 press
conference. He said that though coalition members have different
approaches to different issues, there is always a common position to
strategic issues. According to H. Margarian, it was very important
that almost 90% of OYP leader Artur Baghdasarian’s preelection
provisions were included in government’s four-year program. According
to H. Margarian, considerable improvements happened thanks to their
implementation: a decision was made to allocate a one-off benefit
of 430 thousand drams to a family in case of the birth of the third
and next child, childbirth services became free, it was decided to
allocate 77bn drams to the earthquake zone restoration in the coming
three years, etc.

The OYP representative also said that the government will strive
for creating 2 thousand new jobs in Gyumri construction works to
overcome the world economic crisis consequences. According to him,
the construction of the Iran-Armenia railway and oil pipeline will
also give a possibility for new jobs.

H. Margarian also touched upon the recent shots in Gyumri saying
that there are such phenomena not only in that town, but also in the
whole country.

"The best way of fighting them is to disclose them in time and to
punish," he said. The OYP figure also confessed that the authors of
the threat of settling a score with A. Baghdasarian have not been
disclosed so far. It should be mentioned that A. Baghdasarian stated
at a rally that he had received a threat of murdering him.

FORGETTING THE MOURNING AND FORCING TO PAY

A1+
[11:29 am] 10 February, 2009

The least amount of money needed to purchase a 3X4 meter area for a
tomb in Yerevan today is 100,000 drams. The death of a person causes
not only sorrow, but also material and moral damage if the family’s
monthly budget is not enough for that.

"I paid 200,000 drams at the cemetery and the Funeral Bureau. I paid
that much at the morgue and to buy other funeral accessories and I will
have to pay the same amount for the banquet and other ceremonies,"
told "A1+" resident of the Kentron district Vardan Grigoryan, whose
mother passed away recently.

Funeral Bureau representatives assure that the area for the funeral is
free of charge by law. In addition, the bureau issues a note to visit
the cemetery free of charge. However, at the cemetery, it turns out
that there are hindrances at the area. For example, we were told at
the cemetery office near the Silikian district that it is impossible
to organize a funeral free of charge in that area because it is in
a canyon surrounded by mud and rocks.

"If you really want to bury the dead free of charge, you must dig
deep down with a compressor because there are rocks underneath and
it will cost you 400 dollars," says the cemetery worker:

Based on our surveys, prices for standard size closed cemeteries in
Yerevan start from 700-800 dollars. For example, people have to pay
1,500 dollars for a "normal’ area at the Tokhmakh cemetery. In fact,
you have to pay 26,900 drams to the Funeral Bureau to dig a hole at the
cemetery, but you also need to pay that much to the cemetery diggers.

FOXSports.com
Feb 8 2009

Darchinyan early leader for Fighter of the Year

by Jake Donovan, BoxingScene.com

Updated: February 8, 2009, 1:25 AM EST 4 comments Former flyweight
titlist Vic Darchinyan began 2008 on the comeback trail, and ended the
year as a unified three-belt champion and strong contender for Fighter
of the Year.

With Manny Pacquiao, last year’s winner, not fighting until May,
Darchinyan jumped out to an early start in 2009, adding to his
impressive run of super flyweight victories with a systematic beatdown
of Jorge Arce. A grudge match three years into the making, Darchinyan
dominated throughout en route to an 11th round knockout in Anaheim,
Calif.

The Honda Center crowd never seemed to know which way to root during
much of the high-contact affair. The night began with Arce enjoying
the makeshift hometown advantage with Darchinyan entering the arena to
a chorus of boos. It was the only disadvantage Darchinyan would
encounter all night. But, it was one he seemed to embrace as he bore a
sinister grin on his face all the way to the ring and through the
ropes.

Once the action was underway, the rabid fans in the house simply
cheered the action no matter who was throwing. There was plenty to
root for, even if it meant dedicating its applause to the man they
originally came to despise.

A boxing match never threatened to break out in this fight of little
big men. Both fighters looked for openings in the early
going. Darchinyan found one, a straight left that momentarily stunned
Arce. A right hand found its mark for Arce, but was immediately
countered with an uppercut for Darchinyan, who also landed with right
hooks upstairs as well as straight lefts as the round came to a close.

The momentum flowed in the same direction in the second round. Arce
couldn’t get anything going, as Darchinyan constantly beat the
free-swinging Mexican to the punch. It appeared to be more of the same
in the third, until Arce was finally able to establish his offense.

A double left hook to the body temporarily slowed down Darchinyan’s
attack; two left hooks and a straight right hand upstairs turned the
tide in Arce’s favor moments later. An accidental head butt late in
the round left Darchinyan with a cut over his left eyelid, and the
champ later ate another left hook to add to his troubles.

Arce brought forth the good fortunes into the fourth, starting things
off with the weapon that brought him back into the fight, a left hook
upstairs. Darchinyan struggled to rediscover his rhythm until a
thudding body shot midway through the round helped swing things back
in his favor. A straight left by Darchinyan left Arce wobbled and
forced to clinch inside of the final minute. The sequence was followed
by a teeth-rattling uppercut that left Arce on rubber legs. He
survived the round, but lost his punch as he struggled to regain his
senses.

Back in the driver’s seat, Darchinyan was renewed as the fifth began,
boxing on his toes and almost daring Arce to come in. The round
clearly belonged to the transplanted Armenian, who ended the frame
with a flurry of punches, including one or two after the bell for good
measure.

Sensing his foe was beginning to wilt, Darchinyan offered a brief chin
check at the start of the sixth. Arce absorbed, but offered back
little in return. As the round wore on, Darchinyan was throwing every
punch with mean intentions.

Darchinyan began the seventh round with right hook upstairs, and
basically spent the rest of the round taking Arce to school. The
brutal offensive attack was mixed in with stellar in and out movement,
always just far enough out of Arce’s punches to make him miss and
counter the hell out of him in return. A mixture of fatigue and
absorption had Arce stumbling around the ring at rounds end.

Things slowed down a bit in the eighth, but still heavily in favor of
the unified junior bantamweight champion. Darchinyan was brilliant in
mixing boxing and banging in the round, slipping Arce’s punches and
coming right back with right uppercuts and straight lefts.

Read more at…For more boxing news and features, check out
BoxingScene.com. The first significant foul of the fight came midway
through the ninth. Darchinyan was warned for holding and hitting, with
the offending infraction drawing blood from behind Arce’s left
ear. Both fighters were warned for roughhouse tactics later in the
round. Consecutive jabs landed for Darchinyan early in the tenth, a
combination rarely seen in the fight to that point. Arce couldn’t do
anything more than continue to absorb. Cut around both eyes and behind
his ear, the concern at this point was no longer winning, but whether
or not he’d last the full twelve.

His actions at the start of the eleventh didn’t suggest as such. A
sequence as simple as freeing himself from a clinch resulted in Arce
stumbling into the ropes. Darchinyan landed a straight left that once
again had Arce staggering about the ring moments later, this time
complaining to the referee about a head butt, only to be told that the
blood came from a punch. The cut over Arce’s right eye re-opened,
clearly aggravating the Mexican who kept pawing at it while Darchinyan
treated it like a bullseye.

Just as he was being told by his handlers that there was only one
round left, Dr. Paul Wallace decided that eleven rounds of punishment
for Arce, stopping the fight in between rounds. Arce was visibly
upset, wanting to at least go the full twelve, but it instead goes in
the books as a technical knockout.

The official time was 3:00 of Round 11.

Darchinyan continues to enjoy as great of a run as anyone in the sport
not named Manny Pacquiao. The Armenian-born, Australian-based fighter
improves to 32-1-1 (26 knockouts).

The win is his third straight, and now unbeaten in his last five since
the knockout loss to Nonito Donaire in July 2007. The three wins he’s
enjoyed in the past seven months have clearly been a case of quality
over quantity, racking up one-sided stoppage wins over Dimitry
Kirilov, Cristian Mijares and now Arce.

A rematch with Donaire was suggested, to which Darchinyan was
open. Promoter Gary Shaw, who used to promote the Filipino before the
two had an ugly split last year, shut down the thought of such a fight
taking place. When asked about presenting the fights the fans want to
see, Shaw suggested the likes of Fernando Montiel, Rafael Marquez or
Israel Vazquez, perhaps hinting at a move up in weight for Darchinyan
in the near future.

Wherever he fights in the near future, Vic Darchinyan will be a
massive handful for any fighter. It was a painful lesson learned by
Arce, who suffers his second one-sided loss in less than two years. A
former lineal junior flyweight champion and two-division interim
titlist, it appears that Arce’s glory years are well behind him. The
Mexican dips to 51-5-1 (39 knockouts), snapping a modest five-fight
knockout streak in the process.

ARMENIA’S PARTICIPATION IN FRANCOPHONIA INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION IS BECOMING ACTIVE

ArmInfo
2009-02-02 12:27:00

ArmInfo. Armenia’s participation in Francophonia International
Organization is becoming active.

As press-service of Armenian Foreign Ministry told ArmInfo, on 30
January Armenian foreign minister’s adviser, ambassador Kristian
Ter-Petrosyan met Secretary General of Francophonia International
Organization Abdou Diouf. Ter-Petrosyan presented to the secretary
general Armenia’s actions on deepening cooperation after its joining
the organization as an associated member. Secretary general was pleased
for the fact that Armenia had applied to join Assemblee parlementaire
de la Francophonie.

Ter-Petrosyan said Armenia is waiting for the support of the
organization in the matter of retraining of French language teacher
in Armenia as well as organizing French language courses for top
officials and diplomates.

Ter-Petrosyan proved Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan’s
invitation to Abdou Diouf to visit Armenia.