Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

GERMAN BOXER ABRAHAM GETS TO KNOW DETROIT PRIOR TO FIGHT
BY MIKE BRUDENELL

Detroit Free Press
March 23 2010
MI

King Arthur Abraham, who fights Andre Dirrell of Flint at Joe Louis
Arena on Saturday night, hasn’t taken long to find his feet since
arriving from Germany over the weekend.

Abraham, an Armenian-German who lives in Berlin, has done roadwork
on Belle Isle, visited the Joe Louis statue at Cobo Hall and found
himself a maize-and-blue Michigan T-shirt.

He even favors the Michigan football team, he says, which might not
sit well with Spartans fans at his Showtime Super Six World Boxing
Classic super-middleweight bout at the Joe.

Through an interpreter, Abraham (31-0, 25 knockouts), who once fought
and won with a shattered jaw, said Monday he followed soccer at home
but admired U-M as a football program.

"Everybody in Germany knows the University of Michigan," said Abraham,
making his first visit to Detroit. "It is big and famous. Yes, I know
a little, too, about the football team. I like American football. If
there are Michigan State fans at my bout, would they please remember,
I fight Andre, not them."

Abraham is in town a bit early to watch U-M play, but he will be at
the Red Wings-St. Louis Blues game with Dirrell, 26, the former U.S.

Olympic bronze medalist, on Wednesday.

"I enjoy many sports," Abraham said. "Hockey is very tough."

He would make a good defensive back or winger. He’s strong, quick and
fearless at 165-170 pounds. On Sept. 23, 2006, he won a decision over
Edison Miranda of Colombia despite having his jaw broken in two places.

"I couldn’t KO him, but I finished the fight," said Abraham, 31, of
his first meeting against Miranda, when he retained his International
Boxing Federation middleweight title. "I felt proud as a man that I
was able to defy the pain."

In a return bout in 2008, Abraham won by TKO.

On Wednesday, Abraham will work out at the Kronk Gym on Warren in
Detroit. Dirrell (18-1, 13 KOs) will be on hand.

"Of course, the Kronk has made some great fighters," Abraham said.

"Thomas Hearns is a legend — one of the best in history. I have met
Emanuel Steward a couple of times. It will be great to see him again
in person."

Abraham is also aware that Dirrell, who trained with his younger
brother, Anthony, as a youngster at Kronk, will have a huge home-crowd
advantage at the Joe.

"That does not matter," he said. "In the ring, it is just the two of
us — Andre and me. I focus on Andre."

In his first fight of the Super Six tournament, Abraham knocked out
American Jermain Taylor in the 12th round in October. Dirrell lost
his opening bout to Carl Froch on a split decision.

"I was happy with my victory over Taylor, but I think I can improve
against Andre," Abraham said. "I can get a little better."

Abraham lives with his parents in Berlin, returning to Armenia several
times a year to visit the grave of his grandfather and leave his
grandmother a special present — flowers.

"I have had 31 fights," said Abraham. "I give my grandmother 31
flowers."

TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN TALKS TEMPORARILY HALTED OVER ARMENIA

March 23 2010
Turkey

Armeniah still occupies territory owned by Ankara’s traditional
ally Azerbaijan.

Talks between Turkey and Azerbaijan over securing gas for Europe
have temporarily halted due to disagreements over Turkey’s efforts
to normalise relations with Armenia, Turkey said on Tuesday.

Armeniah still occupies territory owned by Ankara’s traditional
ally Azerbaijan.

The talks over gas supplies from Azerbaijan’s Shakh Deniz II gas
project are crucial to help filling the European Union-backed
Nabucco pipeline project, which aims to reduce Europe’s dependence
on Russian gas.

Turkey have put a temporary stop to the talks.

"We have not talked with the Azeris for between a month and a month
and a half, the fundamental issue here is politics," said Energy
Minister Taner Yildiz, speaking at a news conference.

Turkey signed protocols late last year with Armenia to establish
diplomatic relations and reopen their frontier.

Yildiz said it was unclear whether a previous offer to transit the
Azeri gas to Europe at less than markets prices had been accepted.

The accords however have been slowed as Turkey accused Aramenia of
trying to re-write the texts after top court ruling.

Nuclear talks with Russia

Yildiz also said fundamental issues regarding the building of a
nuclear power plant would have to be worked out with Russia by May.

Turkey wants to build at least two nuclear power plants to reduce
dependence on foreign energy imports and cover a looming shortfall
in electricity.

Energy Ministry sources have said the government may forego a tender
for one of the plants and hand the project to a Russian-Turkish
consortium after a previous nuclear tender, won by a Russian-Turkish
partnership, was annulled over power pricing issues.

"The fundamental issues regarding the building of a nuclear power
station with Russia need to be resolved by May," said Yildiz.

Yildiz also said that he hoped to boost crude oil supplies via tthe
Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline from Iraq to 70 million tonnes per year from
a current annual 25 million tonnes.

ARMENIA PROPOSES PEACE DEAL WITH AZERBAIJAN

Interfax
March 22 2010
Russia

*** Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has proposed that Armenia
and Azerbaijan sign an agreement to avoid use of force. "I wish to
take this opportunity to address Azerbaijan through television in
order to appeal for signing an agreement on the non-use of force,"
the presidential service quoted Sargsyan as saying in an interview
with Euronews television.

"This would lay foundations for confidence in Armenia and Karabakh
itself and would give people the message that Azerbaijan holds a
position of peaceful resolution in the conflict. It is after that
that we might work on details," the president said.

He said the world community proposes three principles to underlie
a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement – self-determination, territorial
integrity and non-use of force.

"It is obvious that we, Armenians, are much more interested in
having the conflict resolved, but we need a long-term resolution,
which involves restoring peace and security in the region and not
just giving Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan as a present, which would
mean that Karabakh had ceased to exist," Sargsyan said.

J. TOKER, "I DO NOT HAVE A DISTINCT ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ON CALLING THE 1915 ATROCITIES GENOCIDE"

/id/595598/lang/en
2010-03-23
YEREVAN

Chairman of the Turkish Liberal-Democratic Party Jem Toker visited
Tsitsernakaberd, memorial complex dedicated to the memory of the
victims of the Armenian Genocide committed in Ottoman Turkey at the
beginning of the 20th century, but he has not yet a completely formed
opinion on the fact of the genocide. At a press conference today in
Yerevan the chairman of the party noted that he does not like history
in general and is not interested in it, but he has heard from Armenian
historians that all the atrocities that were committed against the
Armenians in Turkey are genocide. He said that the Turkish historians
told him that they are not genocide, but "atrocities".

"Horrible atrocities have taken place, but I do not know whether
they must be called genocide. I do not like history, that is why I
have not studied it properly and cannot express a distinct opinion,"
Jem Toker said.

The Turkish political official visits Armenia already for the fifth
time and as he said, tries to take positive stimuli to Turkey for
changing the public opinion about Armenians in his country. During
all those visits J. Toker understood that every Armenian family has
its history connected with the mentioned "atrocities", but he also
reminded that during the same pogroms there were Turks who stretched
a helping hand to many Armenians.

"I understand that it is an all-national deep shake, I realize and
respect that. Nevertheless, I do not have a distinct answer over
calling the atrocities genocide," he said.

Referring to the restrictions of the N 301 article on prohibiting the
term "genocide" in Turkey, Jem Toker said that if a Turkish citizen
accepts the fact of the genocide, no legal punishment is applied
against him/her, but the latter is "labeled" as a traitor by people.

In regard to organization of gathering of signatures in the last
year with the purpose of apologizing to Armenians for the genocide,
the chairman of the Liberal-Democratic Party said that it was of a
symbolic nature and will not register a positive result.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Watch our latest videos on YouTube here:

SPIRITUAL HYMNS OF HOLY WEEK OF THE
ARMENIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ON CD AND BOOK

Each year during the Great Lent, the faithful deepen their spiritual journey
through the centuries old hymns of the Armenian Church. Recently, 8 CDs were
released, which included spiritual hymns of the church starting with the
Raising of Lazarus, including Palm Sunday, the Holy Week and concluding with
Easter Sunday celebrations. Two former graduates of the Seminary, Deacons,
Mark Shirin and Raffi Der Simonian sponsored the project.

The CDs were produced in harmony with the music book published in Antelias
in 1991. The book and the CDs are meant to become resources in religious
education classes, for church choirs and other church activities. The book
and most importantly the CDs are expected to communicate the spirituality of
the church to the faithful and accompany them in their daily lives.

##
Photo here:
tos/Photos454.htm#5

*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

YEREVAN SLAMS TURKEY’S THREAT TO KICK OUT ARMENIANS
By Marc Champion

Wall Street Journal
2748704059004575128083028873948.html?mod=googlenew s_wsj
March 18 2010

ISTANBUL–Armenia on Wednesday condemned a threat by Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expel Armenians who work in his
country without papers, as tensions between the two neighbors rise
over a bloody history and wavering efforts to reopen their border.

Mr. Erdogan told the BBC’s Turkish language service late Tuesday
that of some 170,000 ethnic Armenians working in Turkey, only 70,000
were Turkish citizens. "We are turning a blind eye to the remaining
100,000…Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their
country, if it becomes necessary, because they are not my citizens. I
don’t have to keep them in my country," he said.

Allowing the Armenians to work in Turkey without papers was a "display
of our peaceful approach, but we have to get something in return," Mr.

Erdogan said.

Tuesday’s threat comes as Turkey seeks to dissuade the full U.S.

Congress from recognizing as genocide the slaughter of up to 1.5
million Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. It also
comes as Armenia has been threatening to pull out of a deal that
would reopen its border with Turkey and set up a joint historical
commission to examine the 1915 massacres, among other issues.

"These kinds of political statements do not help to improve relations
between our two states," Armenia Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan told
the county’s parliament Wednesday, according to agency reports. "When
the Turkish prime minister allows himself to make such statements it
immediately for us brings up memories of the events of 1915."

Turkey has reacted angrily to recent resolutions in the U.S. House
Foreign Affairs Committee and the Swedish parliament, which recognized
the 1915 atrocities as genocide. Ankara withdrew its ambassadors from
the two countries. Turkey maintains that the 1915 death tolls are
exaggerated and do not constitute genocide because they took place
in the context of civil war in which hundreds of thousands of Turks
also died. Most Western historians believe the killings of ethnic
Armenians did constitute genocide.

On Tuesday, Mr. Erdogan blamed the Armenian diaspora–often the
families of those who fled or were killed in 1915–for driving the
resolutions. He called on governments in the U.S. and elsewhere not
to be swayed.

On Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told
reporters the Foreign Affairs Committee resolution had damaged
relations with Turkey, but that a full vote on the House floor
remained possible, despite White House opposition. "Congress is an
independent body, and they are going to do what they decide to do,"
Mr. Gordon told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

This is not the first time that Mr. Erdogan and other Turkish officials
have hinted they could take action against the thousands of Armenians
who do mostly menial labor in Turkey without work visas.

Officials from the prime minister’s ruling Justice and Development
party were quick to say Wednesday that no expulsion is imminent.

Still, Mr. Erdogan’s sharp comments come in the midst of a tense game
of brinksmanship between Armenia, Turkey and the U.S. administration.

Turkish officials have expressed frustration at the Obama
administration’s failure to lobby more strongly against the House
Foreign Affairs Committee vote, which passed by just 23 votes to 22,
speculating that it was done to pressure Ankara into ratifying the
deal with Armenia.

The U.S., meanwhile, has done little to hide its frustration with the
reluctance of NATO member Turkey–currently a member of the 15-nation
United Nations Security Council–to back tougher international action
against Iran’s nuclear fuel program. Iran says its nuclear program
is purely for civilian purposes.

Mr. Erdogan again questioned the urgency of tackling Iran’s nuclear
program in the BBC interview. Noting that U.N. nuclear inspectors
have found no proof that Iran is building a bomb, Mr. Erdogan said:
"These are all rumors."

"With respect to Iran, while the international community has sought
to present a single, coordinated message to Iran’s government, Turkey
has at times sounded a different note," Mr. Gordon was due to say
in a speech to the Brookings Instutution, a Washington think tank,
the AP reported.

Write to Marc Champion at [email protected]

WORLD BANK APPROVES $9 MILLION LOAN FOR ARMENIA

Tert.am
16:18 ~U 17.03.10

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a loan to
Armenia worth $9 million USD for a period of 25 years with a 10-year
grace period.

The loan was approved specifically for a project known as the
Second Public Sector Modernization Project for Armenia, which,
according to the World Bank’s official website, "aims to support the
Government of Armenia in its efforts to enhance performance of public
sector management for better service delivery by: a) strengthening
institutional capacity in policy formulation; (b) maximizing the
efficiency of human resources; and (c) developing information systems
for internal work flow and external communication."

ARMENIAN ECONOMY NOT THREATENED WITH SECOND WAVE OF CRISIS

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2010 15:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian economy is not threatened with the second
wave of crisis, being on its way towards overcoming the downfall,
according to economist Gagik Vardanyan.

The expert characterized 1.2% economic growth index stipulated in state
budget as a feasible figure, allowing for a possibility of 2-3% growth.

"The matter is that economic growth can be provided after the crisis
is overcome; yet the growth doesn’t signify economic development," Mr.

Vardanyan told a news conference in Yerevan.

He forecasted the start of Armenia’s economy restoration in 2010-2011,
conditioned by increase of world prices for copper and molybdenum.

1.2% economic growth and 4±1.5% inflation are stipulated in RA state
budget for 2010.

DAVID NALBANDIAN TO PARTICIPATE IN 2010 SONY ERICSSON OPEN

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2010 13:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ ATP stalwarts Carlos Moya and David Nalbandian have
been awarded main draw wildcard berths for the 2010 Sony Ericsson
Open, to be played March 22 – April 4. The first round of the men’s
singles draw begins Wednesday, March 24.

Moya, a former world No. 1, has 20 career singles titles since turning
pro in 1995, including one Grand Slam victory in the 1998 French Open.

His accolades are not confined to the court. In 2005, Moya was
named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year by the ATP for his
tireless charitable work. This year marks Moya’s 13th appearance at
the Sony Ericsson Open. His best showing came in 2003 when he reached
the finals.

Nalbandian continues to be a force on the ATP tour a decade after
beginning a professional career that has seen him rise to as high
as the No. 3 ranked player in the world. To date, he has 10 singles
titles to his credit, and is one of only four active players to reach
the semifinals of all four Grand Slams, including a finals appearance
at Wimbledon in 2002. This year’s tournament will be Nalbandian’s
10th Sony Ericsson Open entry.

Moya and Nalbandian join an already deep and accomplished men’s
field which includes World No. 1 and 2010 Australian Open champion
Roger Federer, six-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, British
sensation and defending Sony Ericsson Open champ Andy Murray,
World No. 2 and 2007 Sony Ericsson Open Champion Novak Djokovic,
2009 U.S. Open Champion Juan Martin del Potro and American superstar
Andy Roddick just to name a few.

In addition to the wildcards awarded to Moya and Nalbandian, three
more wildcard berths will be given out to men prior to the event. The
qualifying rounds played March 22-23 will determine the final 12
entrants to complete the 96-man field, sonyericssonopen.com reported.

The 2010 Sony Ericsson Open will be played March 22-April 4 at the
Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami. The combined event, founded by
Butch Buchholz in 1985, is owned and operated by IMG. The Sony Ericsson
Open is one of nine ATP Masters Series events on the ATP calendar,
a Premier Mandatory event on the Sony Ericsson WTA TOUR calendar, and
features the top men’s and women’s tennis players in the world. In 2009
British standout Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic for his first Sony
Ericsson Open title, while rising Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka
knocked off Serena Williams to capture her first title in Miami.

ARTUR BAGHDASARYAN NOT TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT

ArmInfo
2010-03-16 12:43:00

ArmInfo. Extraordinary parliamentary and presidential elections in
Armenia are neither necessary nor expedient. There are no relevant
resources for it either, Artur Baghdasaryan, Leader of Orinats Yerkir
Party, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

"Elections in Armenia will take place in due time. I have no intention
to run for president, but our party will run for the parliament in
2012. Any statements on necessity of extraordinary elections are
groundless," he said.

On March 1 Leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon Ter-Petrosyan
declared during the opposition rally that extraordinary elections
to the parliament and for president will take place in Armenia in
September.