Author: Khoyetsian Rose

womenboxing.com
June 10, 2005

One on One Interview with Susianna Kentikian
By Torben L.

Susianna Kentikian was born on 11th September 1987 in Jerewan, Armenia. Her
life story sounds like a movie script, despite her young age of only 17. She
came with her family to Hamburg, Germany in 1996, fleeing the civil war in
Armenia. They stayed the first years in Hamburg at asylum seeker’s homes,
under the constant threat of expulsion. More than once the family was
dragged out of bed by the Police in the middle of the night and transported
to the airport for deportation. Fortunately expulsion was avoided in the
last minute through the intervention, among others, her boxing trainer Frank
Rieth.
Her first encounter with boxing took place 5 years ago, when she
accompanied her brother Mikael to a boxing club. Not content with the role
as a spectator, she learned to box herself and has remained in the tough
game ever since. She won the Hamburg Championships for juniors from 2001 to
2004, as well as the several North German Championships.
Website:

Her biggest achievement as an amateur was a gold medal at the International
German Women’s Amateur Championships in Maisach 2004 in the featherweight
division for juniors. This was done in convincing style by beating Tasheena
Bugar 27-19 in the semi final. Kentikian then went on to a 27-5 win in the
final against Alessandra Sieber. Further honour was bestowed on her at the
championships, as she won the award for the best technical boxer in the
junior division.

Kentikian found it increasingly difficult to find opponents in the amateur
ranks, as very few wanted to face her in the ring. Her status as asylum
seeker also added to the problems, as she was not allowed to box outside
Hamburg. So when Spotlight-Boxing offered her a 3 year contract in the
beginning of 2005, she jumped at the chance to help herself and not least
her family. Susianna’s mother is in constant need of care and her father
suffers from temporary bouts of depression. So the steady income Susianna
now earns as a pro boxer, is a very welcome help to the family. This has
also solved the family’s problems with regard to their asylum seekers’
status, at least for the time being. They have received a temporary
residence permit, because the family is now self supporting through
Susianna’s income and her father’s involvement in the team. It also means
that, Susianna has been able to stop working as a cleaner in her spare time,
and concentrate on her boxing career and her school work.

She made her debut as a pro on 15th January 2005 in Magdeburg against Iliana
Boneva, whom she beat on points over 4 rounds.

Her next fight was in her home town of Hamburg on 26th February 2005, where
she made it a short evening for herself and her opponent, Debbie Paterok
(formerly Lohmeier). Paterok was KO’ed with a hard punch to the head 1 min
22 seconds into the first round.

Kentian’s 3rd fight was also in Hamburg and took place on 29th March, 2005.
This was even shorter than the previous fight. Lucie Hornakova had enough
after 37 seconds of the first round, and gave up.

Her 4th fight took place in Magdeburg on 7th May against Juliia Vlasenko of
the Ukraine. Kentikian took command right from the start of and kept up
pressure throughout, especially with her right hand. Vlasenko turned her
back on Kentikan after a combination in the 3rd round, and the referee
stopped the fight.

Susianna Kentikian is due to fight again on 4th June 2005. The opponent is
yet to be revealed.

Statistics:
Date of Birth 11th September, 1987
Place of Birth: Jerewan, Armenia
Weight Class: Flyweight/Junior Flyweight
Height: 1.55 m (5′ 1″)
Amateur Record: 24-1-0
Pro Record: 4-0-0 (3 KO’s) as of 23 of May 2005
Promoter: Spotlight-Boxing
Trainers: Magomed Schaburow / Frank Rieth

Website:

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 10, 2005 Friday 7:24 PM Eastern Time

Holland Gr finance ministers, bank gov’s to meet in Tbilisi Sat

By Iya Barateli

TBILISI

An annual working session of the Finance Ministers and State Bank
Governors of the member-countries of the Holland Group to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank is to be held
here on Saturday.

IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato will attend the session. He
will also hold bilateral meetings with the delegations of the
Netherlands, Armenia, Romania, Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria,
and Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Those present at the forum in Tbilisi will discuss the current
activities of the IMF and the World bank, theIMF policy and strategy,
the role of the World Bank and its influence on the development of
the European Union, various aspects of fiscal and monetary policies,
and work out a one-year plan for activities.

Rodrigo de Rato is to meet with Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, Parliament Speaker Nino
Burdzhanadze, Finance Minister Valery Chechelashvili, and National
Bank President Roman Gotsiridze.

RA FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS WITH CO-CHAIRS OF OSCE MINSK GROUP ON
KARABAKH SETTLEMENT TODAY IN VIENNA

YEREVAN, June 8. /ARKA/. RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian met with
Co-Chairs of OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh settlement Steven Mann
(USA), Bernard Fassier (France) and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) today in
Vienna. According to the Press and Information Department of RA
Foreign Ministry, the participants of the meeting discussed issues of
conflict settlement, which proceeded from the approaches of Warsaw
talks of Armenian and Azeri Presidents. They also discussed the detail
of the meeting of Vardan Oskanian and Elmar Mamediarov, Armenian and
Azeri Foreign Ministers, scheduled for June 18 to be held through the
mediation of Co-Chairs.

The same day, Oskanian left on a working visit to Washington, where
his meetings with Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State and
U.S. President’s National Security Advisor Steven Hadley. L.V.–0–

Macedonian Press Agency, Greece
June 6 2005

DECISION ON THE NEW BSTDB PRESIDENT IN THESSALONIKI NEXT MONTH
Yerevan, 6 June 2005 (15:19 UTC+2)

The crucial decision on who will be the new President of the Black
Sea Trade and Development Bank, BSTDB, will be made in Thessaloniki
in July, while the likelihood of current President Mustafa Gurdin
from Turkey to remain in his post is not ruled out.

According to a statement to MPA by BSTDB Governor Giorgos Mergos, the
boards of directors and governors will meet on July 30 and 31 to
reach a decision on who will take over the bank’s presidency for the
next term. However, he clarified that for the moment is not clear
which of the BSTDB member states will present candidates.

In the 7th Annual General Assembly meeting of the bank’s shareholders
held in Yerevan, Armenia yesterday, it was decided that Azerbaijan
will succeed Armenia in the BSTDB Board of Governors Presidency.
Also, the governors of Moldavia and Russia were elected as Board of
Governors deputy presidents for the period until the BSTDB next
general assembly meeting to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan on June
11, 2006.

Azerbaijan looks to Turkey as model for cult of dead leader
By Vincent Boland

FT
June 4 2005 03:00

Between a supermarket and a hardwarestore on a busy street close to
the centre of Baku, a poster high on an advertising hoarding provides
a glimpse of what the emerging hub of the Caspian Sea oil industry
might yet become: a country built in the image of one man.

The poster displays portraits of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s late
president and, in the words of his son, “founder of an independent
Azeri state”, and of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who really did create
the republic of Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

That the supermarket is Turkish-owned is not coincidental. The
juxtaposition of these two men is no accident either. Azerbaijan and
Turkey are bonded by ethnicity, language, religion and culture. Both
countries emerged from empires – Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union,
Turkey from its Ottoman imperial past.

Now, a growing cult of personality around Aliyev bears striking
parallels to, and may be a conscious attempt to emulate, the cult of
Ataturk, “father of the Turks”, whose legacy still resonates in his
country three generations after his death in 1938.

In Baku, signs of the emerging cult of Aliyev, who died in 2003,
are everywhere. His portrait glowers from posters at traffic
intersections. The airport, schools and factories are named after
him. His bust is in public buildings.

Last week a vast oil pipeline that is the key to Azerbaijan’s
future wealth was solemnly inaugurated as the Heydar Aliyev
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline.

The man guiding this memorialisation of Aliyev is his son, Ilham
Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s current president. At the ceremony to open the
pipeline, Aliyev the younger gave an emotional speech in memory of
his father.

“He was the architect, the strategist of Azerbaijan,” he told
an audience that included the presidents of Turkey, Georgia and
Kazakhstan.

The old man was not present because “destiny has decided otherwise,
but his ideas are eternal for us”.

Azeris are wearily familiar with the cult of personality from their
days as citizens of the Soviet Union. According to some western
observers in Baku, they may also be torn between their Soviet and
Turkish heritage, giving the parallels between the personality cults
of Aliyev and Ataturk added potency.

Some Azeris make the comparison explicit. Samir Sharifov, executive
director of the State Oil Fund in Baku, says that, just as Ataturk
rescued Turkey from occupation and destruction after the first world
war, Aliyev saved Azerbaijan from the same fate after independence from
the Soviet Union and a war with Armenia over the disputed territory
of Nagorno Karabakh. “Heydar Aliyev did for Azerbaijan what Ataturk
did for Turkey,” he says.

Is the parallel justified? The two men could hardly be more
different. Ataturk was one of the great figures of the interwar years
in Europe, forcing Turkey to modernise and turn westward. His legacy
today is a democratic Turkey.

Aliyev was an apparatchik, the first non-Russian to head a KGB
operation in a Soviet republic (Azerbaijan), who climbed the Soviet
power apparatus to become a member of the Politburo. He was not the
first president of independent Azerbaijan, but the third, coming
to power in 1993 after internal unrest that he was instrumental in
fomenting. He changed the constitution to allow his son to succeed him.

Aliyev appears to have left Azerbaijan as a hereditary autocracy
that “he rules from beyond the grave”, as a western official in Baku
puts it.

Nasib Nassibli, director of the Foundation for Azerbaijani Studies in
Baku, points out that Aliyev could have chosen to model his country
on Turkey’s democratic system.

But, from instinct and training, “Heydar Aliyev didn’t like the Turkish
version of democracy.” What appealed, instead, was the memorialisation
of Ataturk, who has been dead for nearly 70 years but is still alive
in Turkey.

“The people of Azerbaijan need to feel that Heydar Aliyev is still
alive,” Prof Nassibli says. “Turkey has given us a very bad example.”

THE RIGHT OF LAND OF THE ARMENIANS LIVING NEAR THE BORDER OF GEORGIA IS IN DANGER

A1plus

| 15:56:46 | 03-06-2005 | Social |

The Georgian Parliament is discussing the new draft Land Code which
has been adopted by first reading.

In the draft law a number of deputies have offered to introduce a
special point. According to it, the only land-owner in the 5-kilometre
border zone can be recognized the country. If the offer is accepted,
it will have e negative effect on the grave social conditions of the
Armenians and Azeris living near the borderline.

During the first discussion of the draft law the offer has bee rejected
by the State Minister Kakha Bendukidze and a number of other deputies.

The information is provided by the agency “A-Info”.

Armenian cemetery ‘was being demolished for a car park’

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
June 1 2005

AN ARMENIAN cemetery, listed as a heritage site, was being demolished
to make way for a parking lot, Green party deputy George Perdikis
said yesterday.

The House Education Committee yesterday discussed the serious damage
caused to the Armenian cemetery near the Ledra Palace Hotel, when the
Armenian Prelature decided last month to dig up the remains and place
them in a communal pit in the new Armenian cemetery on the outskirts
of the capital.

But the move sparked outrage among the Armenian community, who saw
machinery digging indiscriminately, scattering remains all over
the place.

Interior Minister Andreas Christou suggested the procedure resembled
the digging of bunkers to place tanks inside.

Perdikis suggested a crime had been committed, despite the Armenian
Prelature’s good intentions, and claimed that the cemetery was being
demolished to make way for a parking lot.

Christou said the site had been listed since April 2, 2004 though
the Prelature claimed it had not known about it.

Neither did they know that the company, which took on the digging,
would have committed such unpleasant acts, the committee heard.

The Nicosia Municipality said the order declaring the site listed
had been published in three daily newspapers, though the owner had
not been informed in person.

Work at the cemetery had been halted after the Interior Ministry
secured an injunction. Townplanning department representative Athina
Aristotelous stressed that the workers doing the job were not skilled,
smashing the tombstones – some of which date back to the Middle Ages –
and collecting them in a heap.

The Education Committee asked the Prelature to inform them in writing
about what they were planning to do to restore the damage.

RAFFI HOVHANNISSYAN IS ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF “HERITAGE” PARTY

YEREVAN, MAY 30. ARMINFO. Raffi Hovhannissyan was elected the Chairman
of “Heritage” party at its third session, May 30.

He stated in his speech that changing status-quo at Armenia’s internal
political field is party’s priority task. In his words, the heritage
of Armenian people should be saved from representatives of present
ruling regime privatized the power and used it exceptionally in its
own interests.

Hovhannissyan stressed the necessity of overcoming the atmosphere of
distrust existing in Armenia. However, he noted that Armenian people
should not follow signals from Washington, Moscow or Europe. “We should
decide our fate by ourself without any intervention from outside”,
Hovhannissyan stated. As regards the possibility of his nomination
as a presidential contender, Hovhannissyan stressed that this matter
is not priority for him.

To note, representatives of diplomatic corps of foreign countries
accredited to Armenia, as well as leaders of all the opposition forces
(except “Armenian nation-wide movement” and “New Times”) participated
at the session. -r-

Agence France Presse — English
May 28, 2005 Saturday 3:58 PM GMT

Hundreds of thousands remember Armenia’s founding with dance around
mountain

YEREVAN

Some 200,000 Armenians gathered around Armenia’s highest mountain
Saturday to commemorate the country’s founding in 1918, dancing a
round in a chain that stretched more than 160 kilometers.

Virtually all sported an orange hat with a white bill and wore bright
clothing as they formed a chain of 163 kilometers (more than 100
miles) to dance a traditional round around Mount Aragats, 87 years to
the day Armenia was founded — among them President Robert Kocharian.

“The reestablishment of an Armenian state in 1918 was not only a
historical but also a psychological upheaval,” he said.

“The 28th of May is the festival of a people’s rebirth, a people
which was pushed to the limits of destruction,” the president told
his countrymen and -women, in a clear allusion to the massacre of
Armenians between 1915 and 1917 by the Turks — which Yerevan
qualifies as genocide but an accusation which Ankara rejects.

Several ceremonies and dances also took place in other countries with
large Armenian expatriate communities.

The ceremony was followed by a festival featuring performances by
around 200 professional dance groups.

Thousands of Armenians encircle country’s highest mountain in dance of unity

Arminfo
28 May 05

YEREVAN

A “round dance of unity” started around Armenia’s highest Mount
Aragats today.

According to the organizers’ list, 350,000 people were to participate
in the round dance, but those joining it numbered 500,000.

It had been planned that 160,000 people would be enough to hold the
round dance of unity.

The event was also joined by Armenian President Robert Kocharyan,
Nagornyy Karabakh President Arkadiy Gukasyan, Armenian government
officials led by Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan and members of
parliament.

The two countries’ presidents took part in the dance of unity near the
village of Artavan where they arrived by helicopter after attending a
ceremony at the historical complex of Sardarapat.

[Passage omitted: Armenians living in all foreign countries joined the
event]