Month: November 2009

ARMENIA: HOTEL PRICES MUST BE REVIEWED

Aysor
Nov 9 2009
Armenia

Armenian citizens will prefer local recreation centers instead of
foreign ones, said head of the Tourism and Territorial Development
of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, Mekhak Apresyan.

"The state powers must focus on pricing to provide increase in demand,"
he said pointing that there were held some meetings and discussions on
this issue. According to Mr. Apresyan, the point is not in high prices
only but in poor informational support between travel companies and
hotels. "There are hotels with acceptable prices but thin as people
have no information," he said.

ACCORDING TO EURONEWS TV CHANNEL WEBSITE, AZERBAIJAN DOES NOT EXIST ON THE WORLD MAP

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2009 14:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ After updates of weather forecasts on the Euronews
channel’s web-site, it turned out that such country as Azerbaijan
does not exist in the list of countries, having weather forecasts on
the website.

Previously, Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia and Georgia, which are in the
list of European countries, was placed in the list of Asian countries.

Now the weather in Azerbaijan is simply impossible to check on the
web-site, since Azerbaijan is not there.

Naturally, such an event could not leave indifferent some Azerbaijani
media, which, as usual, announced a nationwide campaign to "restore
the geographic justice".
From: Baghdasarian

PRESENTATION OF "G. SUNDUKYAN ON GEORGIAN SCENE IN THE XIX CENTURY (1874-1903)" BECAME CELEBRATION IN TBILISI

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2009 14:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The presentation of Ida Babayan’s "G. Sundukyan
on Georgian scene in the XIX century (1874-1903)" which was held in
Petroos Adamyan Armenian Dramatic Theatre, Tbilisi. The event which
brought together professionals of Armenian and Georgian theatre became
a real celebration.

Beginning the 1970s, Ida Babayan studied archive materials. Her first
book was published by government order in 2008 upon the initiatives
of RA NAS Institute of Art (Edit Print publishing house). The book
comprised 250 illustrations depicting the XIX century Tbilisi. Painted
by Armenian and Georgian artists, they not only help form proper
understanding of those times, but also prove Armenians’ considerable
role in Georgia’s rich cultural-theatrical life.

In her conclusion, the author wrote the following lines, "Georgia’s
theatrical culture in the second half of the XIX century was marked
by the richness of drama literature, but the artistic phenomenon of G.

Sundukyan was of special importance. It played crucial role in the
process of both the renaissance and further activities of theatre,
contributed to the formation of an entire chain of actors, strengthened
theatre and served as a breeding ground for solving actual problems,
thus producing artistic influence upon Georgian society’s spiritual
life."

Armenian and Georgian theatrical figures attending the ceremony
stressed the importance of presenting such works in a proper manner.

Doctor of Art Mikhail Kalandarishvili, Vice Chair of Georgian Writers’
Union Revaz Mishveladze and merited Art Worker Nvard Asatryan agreed
that "The large-scale presentation, whose program includef theatrical
and musical performances, became a real bridge between Armenia and
Georgia. It promoted active cultural ties between both countries’
theatrical figures."

KARAPETYAN: A WALL BEGINS SURROUNDING ARMENIA

Aysor
Nov 9 2009
Armenia

"The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago is a very positive developing
which has influenced not only German people but entire world and
all international relations," said Republican Party’s member Lernik
Aleksanyan at the press-conference referring to the celebrating of the
20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tigran Karapetyan,
leader of the People’s Party of Armenia, in his turn, said that the
Wall, which divided Berlin and the entire country for nearly three
decades, fell in time while similar wall begins now surround Armenia.

"We Armenians have to take into consideration that we are locked from
the four winds. It is not necessary that you can see the real existing
wall to be able to imagine it," he said adding that difficulties in
taking care of all spread all over the world Armenians, especially,
of those in Javakheti (Georgia) grow.

"We can’t even send books to our compatriots in Javakheti. Armenia’s
authorities must discuss the issue of easing the way to Armenians
of Javakheti. Despite this is an invisible wall, it really exists,"
said Tigran Karapetyan.

ARSHILE GORKY: A RETROSPECTIVE AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART
by Ed Voves

California Literary Review

Nov 9 2009

Arshile Gorky, American (born Armenia), 1904 – 1948, The Artist and
His Mother, c.1926-36, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 inches Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York, Gift of Julien Levy for Maro and Natasha
Gorky in memory of their father © 2009 Estate of Arshile Gorky /
Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Icon is a word so often used today, that it can be a shock to behold
art that is truly iconic. In the case of Arshile Gorky, the mystical
emotions evoked by actual religious icons are very much present in
his work.

Arshile Gorky, who explored virtually the entire range of modern
art during his tragedy-shaded career, is the subject of a major
retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gorky dedicated
himself to a spiritual quest, as few other artists in the 20th
century sought to do. His aim was nothing less than to recreate the
land of his boyhood, Armenia. The people of that ancient nation had
been decimated in the opening genocide of modern times, victims of
Turkish aggression during the First World War.

"Who now remembers the Armenians?" Adolf Hitler exclaimed, as he and
his Nazi lieutenants planned the Final Solution. The answer can be
found lining the walls of the masterful exhibition in Philadelphia.

Arshile Gorky remembered.

"I shall resurrect Armenia with my brush," Gorky declared in 1944,
"for all the world to see."

Arshile Gorky was born Vosdanik Manook Adoian in 1904. He changed his
name to honor the great Russian writer, Maxim Gorky, who had championed
the cause of the Armenian people when so many others had been content
to ignore their plight. Gorky’s name change also reflected his search
for an identity after the culture of Armenia, along with many members
of his family, had been exterminated by the Turks.

After arriving in the United States in 1920, Gorky embarked upon a
disciplined study of art history and the techniques of the masters of
modern art. Except in his very earliest paintings, Gorky was never a
mere acolyte of other established artists like Paul Cezanne and Joan
Miro. From the first, Gorky was set on finding a new path for himself –
his own.

It was the memory of Armenia and the example of his mother’s devotion
and death by starvation that drove Gorky on. For the greater part of
his working life as an artist, he labored on a number of works devoted
to themes inspired by the experiences of his youth. The chief of these,
and the "show-stopper" of this exhibition, are the two portraits and
related sketches entitled The Artist and His Mother.

The Turkish persecution of the Armenians predated the First World War.

In 1908, Gorky’s father, Setrag Adoian, escaped to the United States
to avoid being conscripted into the Turkish Army. Four years later,
the young Gorky and his mother, Shushaniq, posed for a portrait photo
which was sent to his father. Though strictly conforming to the rigid
conventions of the time, there are emotional undercurrents in this
remarkable photo that Gorky would later explore to the full.

Photograph, Gorky and his mother, Van city, Turkish Armenia, 1912
Courtesy of Dr. Bruce Berberian.

In the photo, the young Gorky’s expression is tinged with shyness,
while his mother faces the camera with more than a hint of doubt,
even reproach, hovering on her features. Gorky’s paintings change the
emotional landscape. In both portraits, he recasts the little boy as
a man of sorrow. More spectacularly, in the somberly painted version
now in the Whitney Museum of American Art, Shushaniq Adoian transfixes
the viewers of this painting with the gaze of an avenging angel.

At first glance, the eyes of Shushaniq Adoian appear to be the gaping
sockets of a skull, mere blackened hollows. Look more closely and
her fully dilated eyes radiate with the energy of hardened orbs of
anthracite coal. Her face is a study in defiance and resolve. The
petulant lips of Gorky’s mother, smeared with a blur of gray and
red leaking down onto her chin, give her the look of a victim of a
brutal police interrogation. But Shushaniq Adoian is the one doing the
questioning in this powerful, searing portrait, asking the viewer why
the plight of the Armenian people has been trivialized into tasteless
remarks like "hungry as a starving Armenian."

Theotokos Hodegetria from the 12th Century

The ultimate source for Gorky’s homage to his martyred mother and his
lost childhood can be traced much further than reworkings of a 19th
century style photograph. Gorky’s chief inspiration for The Artist
and His Mother was one of the most revered forms of art in the Eastern
rites of Christianity, the Theotokos Hodegetria. These icon portraits
of "The Mother of God Who Shows the Way," depict the infant Jesus
being embraced by his mother Mary, whose head is tilted in loving,
wistful solicitude. Her slender curving fingers point to him as the
redeemer of humankind, while the expression of the Christ child in
these icons is usually marked by wisdom or suffering beyond his years.

Both versions of Gorky’s The Artist and His Mother evoke these hallowed
themes, but with crucial differences. In both, it is the young Gorky
whose head is bowed toward his mother. His reverent pose and sorrowing
countenance acknowledge his mother as the martyr, sacrificing her life
that her son might live. Yet there is no embrace, not even a touch in
the Whitney Museum version. Here, the two figures are separated by a
slight, yet unbridgeable gulf. Indeed, this tragic severing of the bond
between mother and son is taken to a truly terrifying degree. Gorky
renders his mother’s hands as unformed, whitened masses. Her hands
look as though they are swathed in bandages, the fingers having been
burned or hacked-off. No physical intimacy is thus possible, nor is
there any future of hope or happiness that she can point to.

The tragedy implicit in the gulf between mother and son in the Whitney
Museum version is underscored by the fact that Gorky’s mother had
actually died in his arms.

The second version of The Artist and His Mother, in the collection
of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, is lighter in tone and
closer in spirit to the original photograph. It is hugely significant,
however, that both paintings transform the apron worn by Gorky’s
mother when she posed for the portrait photo. The vividly embroidered
designs on her apron, so evocative of Armenia’s culture and heritage,
are completely erased in the paintings. The apron of Gorky’s mother
has become her shroud.

In Gorky’s memory, the embroidered designs lived on. As his dialogues
with the various schools of modern art resolved into an embrace of
Surrealism, he was finally able to do justice to the designs on his
mother’s apron. In 1944, when he was at the height of his artistic
power and enjoying a brief moment of personal happiness, Gorky painted
How My Mother’s Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life. Upon finishing
this work, he wrote to his sister Vartoosh that "just a short while
ago I completed a most successful work emanating from the abstract
Armenian shapes of her apron. . . ."

In a 1995 ArtForum article, the British poet and cultural historian,
John Ash, wrote of his visit to Turkish Armenia in which he tried
to trace the roots of Gorky’s abstract art back to his boyhood. Ash
described how Gorky’s mother had taken him as a child to the ancient
monastery of Varak to view its peerless collection of Armenian
manuscript paintings dating to the Middle Ages. About these, Gorky
recalled "their beautiful Armenian faces, subtle colors, their tender
lines and calligraphy."

During their 1915 ethnic-cleansing campaign, the Turks burned these
manuscripts, destroyed the town of Khorkom, later memorialized in
Gorky’s art, and targeted members of his mother’s family for death.

When Ash tried to visit Khorkum in 1994, he was prevented from doing
so, but when he showed his Turkish guide copies of Gorky’s paintings,
the guide responded that "these were the colors of Van in spring
and autumn."

Gorky transformed these talismans of his youth, the embroidered
flowers on his mother’s apron and his memories of the gardens,
fields and groves of trees surrounding Armenia’s Lake Van into the
subject matter for his surrealist masterpieces of the 1940s. In How
My Mother’s Embroidered Apron Unfolds in My Life, the embroidered
flowers are dissolved by memory and Gorky’s distinctive brush strokes
of liquefied, almost translucent color. The surroundings of the garden
where he played as a child are likewise liberated into the willowy,
floating imagery of The Garden in Sochi series.

Gorky explored the themes of his Armenian boyhood as an American
artist. It is one of the great strengths of this retrospective that
we can see how the experience of his childhood informed his later
life and influenced the development of American art. Along with
The Artist and His Mother and other paintings directly related to
the Armenian genocide, the exhibition presents Gorky’s murals for
the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, his
abstract evocations of the rural American landscape during the early
1940’s and his searing depictions of the physical pain and mental
anguish that drove him to suicide in 1948.

422 807 TOURISTS VISITED ARMENIA IN JANUARY-SEPTEMBER 2009

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2009 15:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 422 807 tourists visited Armenia in January-September
2009, sadi Mekhak Apresyan, head of tourism department at RA Ministry
of Economy.

"The figure exceeds last year’s index by 5.8 %. Tourists are for most
part arriving from Georgia, CIS countries, Europe, U.S. and Iran,"
he told a news conference on November 9.

Apresyan also emphasized that "opening of Armenian-Turkish border
will encourage regional tourism."

TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE NEW ERA
Sedat Laciner

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Nov 9 2009

There are some that accuse Turkey of deviating from its Western foreign
policy to that of the East. First of all, as President Abdullah Gul
said in his speech at International Strategic Research Organization
(USAK) this week, we should not look at Turkey’s current trade
relations or official visits to understand Turkey’s direction.

We have to look at the values of Turkey to assess whether there
has been a change in the direction. In the last seven years Turkey
has made great reforms and transformations. For example, the Kurdish
policy of the Turkish State has changed dramatically, even mentioning
the term Kurd in Turkey was taboo in the 1990s, but now there is a
Kurdish State TV channel, TRT 7 (TRT Ses). These developments have
not only been in Kurdish broadcasting, but many other fundamental
rights have been given to the Kurdish people as well.

With matters concerning Armenia, Cyprus, relations with Greece, and
many other problematic issues, Turkey has changed its policies and
Turkish laws have been liberated and made more democratic. Turkey’s
economic relations with regional and neighboring countries have
increased as well. After Turkey’s application to the EU for full
membership, much progress has been made and the EU countries have
confirmed Turkey’s progress from a relatively backward country to one
that has begun to comply with EU standards. It is clear that Turkey
is not leaving the West; Turks have developed much more due to a
desire to join the West, the EU. Turkey is increasing its economic
relations; it is not trading in its Western values for those of its
Middle Eastern neighbors.

The Main Objectives and Lasting Effects of the Zero Problem with
Neighbors Policy

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the current government’s policy of
zero problem with neighbors aims to foster cooperation with the region:
the Balkans, Caucasus and the Middle East. Following cooperation,
its next objective is integration of the region, but when we say
integration we mean economic integration not political. Some argue
that since Turkey is improving its relations with Iran, Syria and
Iraq, it means they are shifting their direction towards the east, but
this is not true, Turkey wants cooperation and economic integration,
it does not desire to turn away from the EU or the West in general.

People are asking Turkey why it is developing its relations with
Syria and Iran, but before questioning Turkey’s relations with these
countries we should understand that Turkey is not a lucky country. Our
neighbors are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria
and Greece. If Turkey was France, which has neighbors like Spain and
Germany, its foreign relations could be easier but our neighbors are
maybe the most problematic countries in the world. We have to ‘tame’
them and even change them, and of course Turkey’s direction is not
towards Iran or Syria. If we look at Turkey’s values like liberal
democracy, transparency, free liberal economic market, human rights
and all other western values that the current and previous government
focused on and accepted, we can see that Turkey is trying to reach
the standards of the EU and the West, not the Iranian understanding
of values.

Turkey’s policies are quite different than the Iranian understanding
and approach, these two countries have always been competitor
countries in the region, but we have to have cooperation with Iran;
Turkey is not the neighbor of the United States or Germany, Iran is our
neighbor, Syria and Iraq are our neihbours. Thanks to the new Turkish
neighbor policies, millions of Iranian tourists come to Turkey every
year. Similarly millions of Arabs and about 500.000 Israelis come to
Turkish resorts every year. All these Middle Eastern people travel
and absorb and see the Turkish way of life. They are changing and
influenced by the Turkish model, and not just because of travel, but
due to exposure to Turkish broadcasting as well. Arabs and Iranians
watch Turkish soap operas, they are learning Turkish so that they
can understand these soaps and the most popular soaps are Turkish
in the region. The influence is apparent because in Saudi Arabia
for example, some men applied to the courts to ban Turkish series’
because they argue that these programs are influencing society.

Turkish culture, tourism, and economic relations between these
countries, all social and economic relations are changing the society
in the region. We say it is the soft power of Turkey; it is perhaps
the only country that can change the Middle Eastern societies because
Turkey was the ruler of this region for centuries, and the Turks
unlike the Americans and othe outsiders can understand these peoples.

Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, and Iraq were all under
Ottoman rule and there are many Turkish people amongst the peoples
of the Middle East and both sides are Muslim and know each others
culture very well. I think the U.S and EU countries cannot understand
the Middle Eastern culture or politics, but Turkey can. For instance,
during the Bush era in the United States, they thought that if you
change leaders, you can change the regime, change the borders and
create a new democratic Middle East but it did not work. Saddam is
gone but terror came to replace him. There was not terror under Saddam;
Iraq was a terror free state during his time. The 9/11 attacks were not
carried out by citizens of Iraq, but the U.S. still attacked Iraq and
nothing has changed, maybe it has put Iraq in a much worse situation.

Turkey is against military attacks against any Middle Eastern
countries, including Iran, because Turkey argues that we need
soft power, we need to gain the hearts and minds of the people. Any
attacks in the Middle East will also harm the Turkish economy and our
interests. This is why the Turks are trying to solve the conflicts
and problems in the region.

Turkey was the moderator or facilitator between Israel and Syria,
between Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the various sects in Iraq
and even between the United States and Iran. Turkey is trying to
solve all the regional problems because the Turkish leaders know
that if Turkey cannot, those problems will overflow into Turkey,
like the Kurdish problem; Northern Iraq has become a base for the PKK
terrorists who are attacking Turkish targets. So Turkey is not changing
its direction but perhaps discovering the region and trying to further
its good relations with the region. Turkey is improving relations with
the Middle East, Caucasia and the Balkans but not at the expense of
boosting its relations with the West, because a stronger partner is
better than a weaker partner for the United States and the EU.

Neo-Ottomanism?

Neo-Ottomanism is not possible because the world is a different place
and if any resemblance of Ottoman policy were initiated then all the
former states in the region would be against Turkey. Turkey should
unite the regional countries and change the surrounding region; it
should democratize and liberalize the region, especially the Muslim
countries. Some of them are so backward in education and in where they
position women in society, their economic development and so forth.

Turkey has to change these societies and not by imposing something
as the empire did. First, Turkey needs to solve the problems and then
it should make cooperation and integrate, this ensures equal relations.

This understanding can be named ‘Neo-European Unionist policy’
because this is the EU spirit. Turkey is following the EU experience,
not the Ottoman experience.

Relations with Israel under the AKP

There are some Israelis and Jewish people that have thought the
AKP (AK Party) was an Islamist party and that they were against
relations with Israel, but this is not the case. The previous Israeli
ambassador to Turkey gave a lecture at the USAK a few years ago and
he argued that Turkey’s relations with Israel peaked during the AKP
administration. Economic relations reached over 10 billion dollars,
and tourism, direct investments and trade have developed further and
those cannot be compared to past relations between Turkey and Israel.

The AKP is not against Israel, or against the West, they have complied
to EU regulations in almost all dimensions with Israel, but at the
same time, Turkey has decided to solve its problems with its neighbors.

The Neo-Cons, some of the Jewish organizations, some of the pro-Israeli
think tanks in the US, and right wing extremists in Israel have
accused Turkey of being anti-Israeli in the last 3 or 4 years.

After the Lebanon war and the Gaza conflicts, Turkey harshly criticized
Israel because in both cases more than 1.400 people were killed by
Israeli forces and many were women and children. Perhaps 100-150 were
militant while the rest were civilians. Turkey harshly criticized
Israel and said their way of combating Palestinians is not effective
and their efforts are only creating more terrorists but terrorizing
the region. Israel creates these problems and Turkey like the whole
of the region is paying the cost. It is ironic that some Israeli
experts are now accusing Turkey of being anti-Semitic although Turkey
is maybe the best country in terms of anti-Semitism records.

During Ottoman times, Jewish people took shelter here, Sephardic
Jews came to the Ottoman State, they were a main component of the
empire and when the empire was collapsing Turkey and it’s minorities
cooperated together. There were some Jews who were against having
a Jewish State because they had the protection under the Empire, a
safe haven. They declared that they had a Jewish state and a country
that protected them and during the 20th century, you cannot see any
anti-Semitic political current in Turkey. Israel accuses all critics
of being anti-Semitic but this is not good for Israeli interests.

Turkey believes that friends need to criticize each other sometimes
in order to maintain both parties interests. We are not enemies.

We also see some extremist groups in Israel organizing campaigns
against the AKP. They organize secret reports and secret gatherings
that argue the U.S. should support a military coup in Turkey because
they claim the current political party here cannot develop strong
Turkey-Israeli or Turkey-U.S. relations. They have waged a dirty
campaign in Washington to create a gap between the Turkish and U.S.

administrations and the Turkish State is well aware of these dirty
campaigns. For example, the Jewish group MEMRI is translating Turkish
speeches and Presidential reports in order to manipulate American
society. They translate words with a quite different spirit. If
the Prime Minister says we are friends of Israel that is why we are
criticizing them, they translate it into we are criticizing Israel
because Israel deserves that. They apply dirty tricks to manipulate
American politics.

Last year, after the Davos crisis, a high ranking Israeli general
accused Turkey in all policy areas, including our policies with the
Kurds, Armenians and Greeks, all issues that Israel supported during
the 70’s 80’s and 90’s so what happened in 2009? Nothing has changed
but the problem in Israel is that some politicians and military
personnel are very emotional. I understand they are under fire, they
are surrounded by some hostile Muslim countries and since the 1920s,
they have been in hot conflicts; this environment has had negative
effects for them and maybe they cannot think with a healthy mind
frame, but if they continue to behave towards Turkey in this way,
and undermine Turkish-United States, EU and Israeli relations, this
behavior will cause long lasting damage in relations.

TURKISH PREMIER HAD BEHIND-THE-SCENE MEETING WITH ARCHBISHOP ARAM ATESHYAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2009 17:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
received Archbishop Aram Ateshyan, Head of the Religious Council of
the Armenian Patriarchate. The nearly 45 minute-long gathering took
place behind closed doors. Reportedly, the Archbishop appreciated
Erdogan’s sensitivity towards problems of Turkish citizens with
Armenian decent and welcomed his efforts for a solution.

In his turn, Turkish Premier asked about health condition of Mesrob
Mutafyan, Patriarch of Turkish Armenians, and then extended wishes
of swift recovery, TRT -world reports.

NIKOLAI RYZHKOV: "RAILWAYS IN ARMENIA HAVE BEGUN TO LIVE"

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
09.11.2009 17:36 GMT+04:00

Russia has been fully satisfied with the this year performance of the
"South Caucasus Railways" company, Nikolai Ryzhkov , Russia’s co-chair
of Armenia-Russia inter-parliamentary cooperation committee, Chairman
of Russia’s Natural monopolies committee of Federation Council told
the 17th meeting of the committee in Yerevan.

As Nikolai Ryzhkov told reporters on November 9, the meeting summarized
the work done by the SCR for the year and outlined the work for
the future. "The meeting discussed the ferry, as well as the use
of transport capacity in case of opening the border with Turkey,"
Nikolai Ryzhkov said.

"This meeting shows that opportunities to turn Armenia into the
international transport corridor have not yet lost," the Armenian-
co-chair of the Armenia-Russia inter-parliamentary Cooperation
Committee on Economic Affairs, secretary of the "Prosperous Armenia"
parliamentary faction Aram Safaryan said.

An agreement on bilateral cooperation, including development of railway
infrastructure of Armenia and improvement of transport links between
Armenia and Russia will be signed after the meeting.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

7 ARMENIAN ATHLETES TO TAKE PART IN WORLD WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN GOYANG

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2009 17:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ World Weightlifting Championships will start
on November 17 in the city of Goyang of South Korea. As Samvel
Khachatryan, President of Armenia’s Weightlifting Federation told
Pan.ARMENIAN.Net, because of injuries in Gevorg Davtyan (w/c 77,
the European champion in 2006, 2007, 2nd place at the World Cup 2007,
bronze medalist in 2008) and Ara Khachatryan (w/c 77, silver medalist
of Europe 2007 and 2008) will not take part in the championship.

"Just a few days ago, Artur Babayan (105 kg) was injured and was not
able to fly with the team to Podolsk. From Podolsk our weightlifters
will travel to Goyang," the president of the federation said.

Women’s Team of Armenia:

Meline Daluzyan w/c 63 (25 November)

Nazik Avdalyan w /c 69 (27 November)

Hripsime Khurshudyan w/c 75 (28 November).

Men’s team:

Arakel Mirzoyan w/c 69 (22 November)

Tigran G. Martirosyan w/c 77 (24 November)

Tigran V. Martirosyan w/c 85 (26 November)

Gevorik Pogosyan w/c 85 (26 November).