Author: Andres-Papazian

SUICIDE IN KOSH PENITENTIARY: A PRISONER HANGS HIMSELF

13:56 . 05/04

Suicide was committed today at Kosh penitentiary. Misak Stepanyan,
born in 1969, was found hung in the penitentiary.

Photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan tells M. Stepanyan was sentenced to 7
years’ imprisonment in 2011 for banditry. A criminal case was brought
against him under Article 175 (Part 2, Point 4) of the Criminal Code
(Banditry with the purpose of capturing somebody’s property by using
a weapon or other item as weapon).

The operative-investigative group of the regional police department
of Aragatsotn and justice ministry officials visited the penitentiary.

From: A. Papazian

PUBLIC CHAMBER SAYS ELNUR SEYIDOV’S ARREST IS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED AND TARGETED AGAINST ALI KARIMLI

Azerireport

BAKU. April 4, 2012: Public Chamber, the opposition umbrella
organization, made a public statement regarding the arrest Ali
Karimli’s brother in law Elnur Seyidov. The Public Chamber denounced
Elnur Seyidov’s arrest saying the arrest was purely political, with its
primary aim to intimidate Ali Karimli, the chairman of the opposition
Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA). Elnur Seyidov’s lawyers
have publically announced that, charges forwarded against Seyidov
had no evidentiary basis. Elnur Seyidov himself stated in his speech
during his trial that he had not committed any crime and that he was
arrested for merely being Ali Karimli’s brother-in-law.

Elnur Seyidov’s position at the bank did not allow him to make any
order, or bear any responsibility regarding the financial matters.

Despite the fact that there was no evidentiary justification for his
arrest, the criminal investigation has been commenced, with Seyidov
being detained for three more months.

The Public Chamber also noted that despite being charged with a
financial crime Seyidov was arrested by the Ministry of National
Security (MNS) and kept in that organization’s custody. This is an odd
situation because normally MNS is to deal with the issues concerning
the national security, not the financial violations at a local branch
of an ordinary bank.

“The MNS is currently leading the investigation on Seydov’s case. It is
therefore clear that the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan
(the famous and most frequently used tool of repression against the
political opposition and free media) used the arrest of Etibar Aliyev
( head of board of directors of Technikabank) as an excuse to arrest
Ali Karimli’s brother in law,” reads the Public Chamber’s statement.

In its statement the Public Chamber regards this arrest as a political
repression against Ali Karimli and the Public Chamber itself. The
Public Chamber declares that the arrest is a sign of a new wave of
repression against Ali Karimli.

“The leader of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) Ali
Karimli, and his fellow party members have faced numerous incidents of
repression in preceding years. The PFPA was forcefully and unlawfully
evicted from its headquarters, making it almost impossible for it to
operate. In addition to this, Ali Karimli’s passport request has been
refused on utterly absurd reasons, and his family members are often
have to face the repressive measures of the Azerbaijani government.

Karimli’s close relative Inqilab Karimov is already serving time in
jail after he had received an unjust court conviction and sentenced
to two years of imprisonment. It is important to note, that Elnur
Seyidov’s arrest could be evaluated as a negative governmental
response, to the regular international calls, for political
concessions, and demands of immediate release of political prisoners,
prior to the Eurovision song contest. Public Chamber condemns the
repression act propelled by feelings of revenge by the leadership
of the Azerbaijani government and notes that not only the political
opponents of the Azerbaijani government, but also their non-political
relatives are being targeted in a new campaign launched by the
Azerbaijani government.

Public Chamber regards this act as immoral and unethical, and calls on
the Azerbaijani government to refrain from these methods of political
competition. The statement also notes that the Public Chamber gives its
full political and moral support Ali Karimli and his brother-in-law
Elnur Seyidov. Public Chamber also makes a reminder that one of the
demands during its scheduled public protest rally on April 8 will
be the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Elnur
Seyidov (Azerireport).

From: A. Papazian

EXPERT: AZERBAIJANI GOVERNMENT NOT JUST DEMOLISHES HOMES, IT DESTROYS PEOPLE’S LIVES

Panorama.am
05/04/2012

Touching on a song festival watched around the world, Reuters alerts
the government has trampled on people’s rights in razing homes for
the country’s big night.

“Azerbaijan’s president has built a glittering “Crystal Hall” to
host a song festival watched around the world, but critics say the
government has trampled on people’s rights in razing homes for the
country’s big night in the spotlight,” reads the story.

“The Azerbaijani government is not just demolishing homes, it’s
destroying people’s lives,” said Jane Buchanan, senior Europe and
Central Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, an
international rights watchdog. “Eurovision gives the government an
opportunity to showcase Baku to thousands of visitors and millions of
television viewers,” she said. “But instead, Azerbaijan’s government
is showcasing its disregard for human rights by forcing people from
their homes steps away from the contest site.”

Armenia’s Public Television pulled out of the contest this month. It
said that despite security guarantees by the Azeri authorities,
Aliyev had described his country’s neighbour as enemy number one.

From: A. Papazian

LE DEPUTE UMP RICHARD MALLIE ACCUSE UN GROUPE TURC D’AVOIR PIRATE SON SITE INTERNET
Stephane

armenews.com
jeudi 5 avril 2012

Le depute UMP Richard Mallie, chef de file des parlementaires francais
hostiles a l’entree de la Turquie dans l’Union europeenne, accuse
vendredi un groupe turc l’avoir pirate son site internet.

Sous le titre “des extremistes turcs tentent de bâillonner un
parlementaire Francais”, le depute des Bouches-du-Rhône declare dans
un communique que “toute sa structure internet a ete piratee dans la
nuit par le groupe extremiste turc Al Turks Team”.

“Ce comportement est scandaleux”, ajoute le president du Comite
parlementaire de vigilance contre l’entree de la Turquie dans l’union
europeenne qui rassemble plus d’une centaine de deputes. Le depute UMP
ajoute qu’il rassemble toutes les informations techniques necessaires
avant le depôt d’une plainte.

From: A. Papazian

DAYS OF UKRAINIAN CULTURE IN ARMENIA HAVE BECOME A RELIABLE BASIS FOR EXPANSION OF COOPERATION PROSPECTS
by Alexander Avanesov

arminfo
Tuesday, April 3, 12:45

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic
of Armenia, Mr. Ivan Kukhta, replies to ArmInfo News Agency’s questions

How would you characterize the Days of Ukrainian Culture in Armenia?

What do you think has been achieved and what has still to be done?

Over the past 20 years of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and
Armenia, the Days of Ukrainian Culture was the first large event in
Armenia. It is very important to hold such kind of events from the
point of view of promoting bilateral relations in the humanitarian
sphere. In general, one can say that the year 2011 proved to be
very fruitful in the bilateral relations, as the cooperation was
actively developing in all dimensions: political, economic and,
naturally, cultural and humanitarian spheres. Cultural and humanitarian
cooperation is very important in the bilateral relations, since these
relations are first and foremost provide a contact of the two cultures
and two nations.

The first Days of Armenian Culture in Ukraine were held in July 2011
on the margins of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Kiev.

The Days of Armenian Culture were well received by the Ukrainian
community. Moreover, the Days were held not only in Kiev, but also in
Odessa and Kharkov. Therefore, the geography of the Days of Ukrainian
Culture in Armenia has also been expanded: the event covered Yerevan,
the capital city of Armenia, as well as Gyumri and Spitak. And it
is not accidental, because the Ukrainian companies used to take an
active part in liquidation of the aftermath of the 1988 earthquake. The
incumbent President of Ukraine was among those, who were liquidating
the consequences of the quake. The given fact is a specific example
of cooperation between the regions of the two states. The residents
of Gyumri and Spitak still warmly recall the Ukrainian builders,
who took part in construction of housing and socio-cultural facilities.

Were the prospects of bilateral cooperation in the humanitarian sphere
outlined within the frames of the Days of Culture?

Certainly, they were. The choir “Galitskiye Perezvony” and the
National Chamber Orchestra “Kievskaya Camerata” visited Armenia. It
is very important that both of them presented the elements of the rich
culture of Ukraine – choral singing and classical music. In addition,
the paintings of the Painters’ Union of Ukraine were exhibited at
the National Gallery of Armenia.

The Culture Ministers of the two states met on the margins of the
Days of Culture. They pointed out the significance of such events, as
they are a reliable basis for development of prospects of cooperation
between Ukraine and Armenia in the cultural and humanitarian sphere.

First and foremost, the sides reached a high-level agreement on
Ukraine’s participation in the exhibition dedicated to the 500th
anniversary of book printing in Armenia in April 2012. They also
agreed to speed up cooperation between the students and creative teams
of the two states. In particular, in summer the children’s creative
teams from Armenia will participate in the international children’s
festival “Let’s Change the World for the Better” in Artek. Children
from almost all over the world will take part in the festival. Ukraine
is responsible for organizing the festival and for accommodation of
the participants in the Children’s Center “Artek”, and Armenia will
traditionally send its creative team to the festival. Our ministers
also touched on regional cooperation both between Kiev and Yerevan
and between other regions of our countries.

As far as I know, the Days of Culture also covered the issue of
preservation of the facilities of cultural and historical heritage…

Yes, this issue was really discussed during the event. First of all,
the matter concerns the large heritage of Armenian culture in Ukraine.

The first Armenian settlements appeared in Ukraine in XI century,
and they created a lot of cultural monuments. It is quite natural
that Ukraine is interested in preservation of these monuments. Today
the Municipality of Lviv allocates certain funds for renovation of
the frescoes in the Armenian Cathedral in Lviv. In addition, Ukraine
provides money for restoration of Armenian churches in the Crimea
and considers renovation of Armenian churches in Feodosiya and Yalta.

The Armenian community has applied to the Municipality of Kiev for
building the biggest monastery complex in Europe in the capital
of Ukraine…

The complex will be built at the approach to Kiev from Boryspil
Airport. The Municipality of Kiev has already provided a site for
construction. Ukraine will allocate part of the funds, but the Armenian
community in Ukraine (nearly 450 thsd people) will invest most part
of the money.

The final tournament of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship
will be hosted by Ukraine. Was this issue discussed in Yerevan?

When talking about the importance of cultural cooperation, one should
not leave out of account the cooperation in the sphere of sport.

Unfortunately, Armenia’s team failed to reach the final tournament;
we all were distressed for the Armenian football players. Undoubtedly,
Euro-2012 will become a large sport event in the history of modern
Ukraine, because it will raise the image of the young independent
state. Our Minister of Culture kindly invited all fans and just
citizens of Armenia to visit Ukraine during this big sport event.

Within the frames of Euro-2012, Ukraine will present its culture,
art, cuisine, as well as its huge tourism potential.

From: A. Papazian

EXPORTATION OF RED BOOK BIRDS FROM ARMENIA RUNS COUNTER TO CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

arminfo
Tuesday, April 3, 19:30

Exportation of Red Book birds from Armenia runs counter to Convention
on Biological Diversity, Head of the Center for Bird Lovers NGO Silva
Adamyan said at a press conference on April 3.

Adamyan said that the birds registered in the Red Book have become
a real sweet spot for those wishing to earn big money. For instance,
a peregrine costs 50 thsd EUR abroad. At the same time, one can find
peregrines in Armenia more and more rarely.

According to the expert, the birds are exported through the
Armenian-Iranian border for further sale. “This causes some questions,
because the customs office should suppress the attempts of exportation
of the birds registered in the Red Book”, Adamyan said.

The pet market in Zeytun, Yerevan, also causes some questions. “Here
one can see people selling rare species of birds. We applied to
the Ministry of Nature Protection, however, the problem is still
unresolved”, she said.

From: A. Papazian

NEWLY HIRED PROFESSORS PAID MORE IN ARMENIA THAN CHINA BUT LESS THAN ETHIOPIA

epress.am
04.03.2012

How much is a professor worth? It might help to know what professors
are actually paid and how that figure compares with other salaries –
and with the salaries of academics in other countries. But as Philip
Altbach and his colleagues at the Center for International Higher
Education discovered, such questions are a lot easier to ask than to
answer, The New York Times reports.

In a new book, “Paying the Professoriate,” to be published this month,
Altbach and his co-editors examine academic salaries, contracts and
benefits in publicly funded universities in 28 countries. They depict
a world increasingly divided “into two categories – brain drain and
brain gain,” as countries with more resources siphon off academic
talent from poorer countries. They also show a profession that in
many countries is subject to a widening gap between professors at top
research universities and those who work at colleges devoted mainly
to teaching, “who are lower in the academic pecking order and who
now constitute the large majority of the academic work force.”

All currencies were converted into US dollars using a purchasing power
parity index based on the cost of a set of items in the United States.

But they also compared salaries in each country with that country’s
average per capita gross domestic product, giving a sense of how
academics were paid in comparison to pay for compatriots in other
jobs. Finally each of the 28 country teams was asked whether the
average academic salary for that country was “sufficient to support
a middle-class standard of living.”

In terms of purchasing power, newly hired academics in China ($259 per
month, as calculated by this particular study’s index) were the worst
off, paid less than colleagues in Armenia ($405) or Ethiopia ($864).

Academics in Canada, where the entry level salaries averaged $5,733,
and full professors were paid an average of $9,485, had more cause
for celebration than in the United States, where newly hired faculty
members averaged $4,950 and full professors $7,358 – a figure that
put the United States behind Italy ($9,118), South Africa ($9,330),
Saudi Arabia ($8,524), Britain ($8,369), Malaysia ($7,864), Australia
($7,499), and India ($7,433).

“Just finding the data proved difficult,” Altbach said in an
interview. “Many countries track school teachers’ salaries, but
not academic pay. And among academics, salary remains such a taboo
subject.” A preliminary report in 2003 recruited researchers from a
dozen countries but “we found two problems.”

“None of us were economists, so we didn’t really know how to make
sense of the data. And the data we got was pretty bad,” Altbach said.

However, that first effort caught the interest of Maria Yudkevitch
and Gregory Androushchak at the National Research University Higher
School of Economics in Moscow. “Leaving aside social science, the
Soviets had a really excellent university system – which has largely
been destroyed,” Altbach said.

“We wanted to get an international perspective,” said Androushchak,
one of the book’s co-editors. Although Soviet science had put the first
man in space, and Russians continue to be awarded Nobel prizes – and to
launch rockets – the country’s academic institutions consistently fare
poorly in international rankings. “We wanted to know what developed
countries paid their academics, as well as developing countries
and the other BRICS,” he said, referring to the emerging economies,
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“Paying the Professoriate” brings together government statistics
from countries where the information is available with survey data
from those where it is not. Private universities were excluded,
since most do not publish salary data.

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJAN FLOUTS FREE PRESS ON EVE OF EUROVISION
By Annette Langer

SPIEGEL ONLINE

04/02/2012

They are frequently harassed, sometimes beaten and even filmed while
having sex: The risks to journalists in Azerbaijan are many. Ahead of
the Eurovision Song Contest, the authoritarian government in Baku has
shown no signs of relenting. The country’s opposition says foreign
journalists should beware.

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On March 7, Khadijah Ismailova received an anonymous letter containing
an envelope with six photos of an “intimate nature” as she calls
it. Included was this message: “Slut — behave or you will be
dishonored.” Only one week later, a video of the journalist having
sex with her boyfriend was posted on the Internet. At the same time,
two newspapers that are loyal to the government accused her of lax
morals and indicated where the videos could be found.

Ismailova sits astride a chair decorated with an inlay pattern,
her arms draped over its back. Outside the house, which belongs to
a friend, looms the skyline of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan,
where the Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in just a
few week’s time. Ismailova has dark circles under her eyes; recent
weeks have left her visably exhausted. “The government humiliated me
and transformed me into an object, but society has stood up for me,”
she said in a solemn tone.

Ismailova has ceased receiving guests in her apartment since she
realized it had been bugged with cameras and microphones — in the
living room, maybe in the bathroom, but above all in the bedroom. The
journalist has no doubt that high-level civil servants are behind the
film: “They thought I’d back down, but that was a miscalculation. If
I had taken one step back, I would have been done,” she said. Her
stubbornness paid off: Even media loyal to the government distanced
themselves from showing the secretly filmed videos or photos.

Partisans, Not Journalists

Ismailova filed a complaint over the intrusion into her private life
and the investigation is ongoing. She does not have high expectations:
“The courts don’t care about evidence,” she says. “They will make
a political decision in the end.” She says she plans to follow the
appeals process as far as possible before turning to the European
Court of Human Rights.

The smear campaign against Ismailova is all the more devastating
given that she is an unmarried woman in a Muslim society. Although
the government professes secularism, forbids the wearing of head
scarves in schools and demonstratively opposes the construction of
mosques, religious morality remains influential among the largely
Shiite populace. As such, Khadijah Ismailova was surprised that even
Muslim leaders backed her up: “They understood that it is not about
something personal but about politics.”

“We are not journalists. We are partisans,” says Vidadi Memmedov,
a long-time editor at the government-critical daily Azadliq, which
also received the compromising photos of Ismailova but refused to
print them. Time and again he and his colleagues have been followed
and threatened, he says. “We know who will arrest, blackmail, hit or
even kill us. But we’re fighting for freedom of the press. We believe
that is our responsibility.”

Every evening Ismailova goes on air on “Radio Liberty.” The seasoned
reporter has especially attracted attention for her investigative
work. In several publications she has sought to uncover how the
presidential family has been secretly privatizing state companies. “I
focused too closely on the daughters of Ilham Aliyev,” she says in
reference to the president. “They didn’t like that.” Most recently she
reported on Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva’s apparent holdings, via companies
registered in Panama, in the telephone company Azerfon.

‘Sex With the Lights Off’

Despite the democratic shortcomings in Azerbaijan, human rights
advocates agree that the press should nonetheless travel to Baku
for the Eurovision Song Contest in order to get a first-hand view
of the situation. But Ismailova warns that foreign journalists will
most likely be spied upon. “Everyone should worry,” she says. “Big
Brother is everywhere.”

And they don’t seem terribly concerned about hiding it. During an
hour-long interview conducted by this journalist with an opposition
leader in a cafe, a “couple” at a nearby table followed every word.

Several security officials in civilian clothing took up positions in
front of the door and at least two people continued the observation
on the streets outside. An additional person took pictures.

“Sex only under the blankets and with the lights off” is the advice —
meant seriously — given to visitors to the Eurovision Song Contest
by the activist group Free Youth, which is critical of the government.

The public exposure of journalists and those opposing the regime in
Azerbaijan is not a new phenomenon. Shortly before the parliamentary
elections of 2010, the television station Lider aired a spot called
“The Naked Truth about the Opposition,” an uncensored sex video of
the publisher of the opposition newspaper Azdaliq. The television
station belongs to a cousin of President Aliyev.

Colleagues of Ismailova have repeatedly been targeted by such
campaigns. “When the first videos with my friends appeared, I put up
a tent in my apartment to at least have a little bit of privacy. Later
I realized how grotesque that was and I took it down.”

Azerbaijan has been a member of the European Council since 2001 and
signed the Human Rights Convention. The ruling family has oriented
itself toward the West and has sought to modernized their country,
even to the point of seeking to build a kind of new Dubai on the
shores of the Caspian Sea. But the regime has yet to abandon archaic
methods of control.

Not Giving Up

Educated young Azerbaijanis are now taking to the streets in protest
against the regime. One of the best known among them is the 21-year-old
blogger and political activist Jabbar Savalan. He frequents the
opposition cafe Araz, where the police and regime critics gather
in unusual harmony to smoke and eat warm chickpeas with butter to
loud music.

In February 2011, he was arrested for drug possession on his way home
from a meeting and sentenced to three years in prison. He says that
security officials planted a gram of heroin on him. Following pressure
exerted by the European Parliament and human rights organizations
such as Amnesty International, he was released early in December.

The arrest did not come as a surprise, given that Savalan had
published an article critical of the Aliyev clan, but the unjust
charges affected him deeply nonetheless. “The time in prison made me
strong,” he says. “I want our people to wake up, realize their rights
and fight for them.”

Khadijah Ismailova is not thinking about giving up either. “My anger,”
she says, “is greater than my fear.”

From: A. Papazian

FROM IRAN TO KARABAKH: CAN AZERBAIJAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE POSSIBLE WAR AND START ITS OWN?
By Aris Ghazinyan

ArmeniaNow
03.04.12 | 11:57

>From Iran to Karabakh: Can Azerbaijan take advantage of the possible
war and start its own?

The possibility of an Israeli offensive against Iran is being voiced
more and more frequently. A Washington Post correspondent, accompanying
chief of Pentagon Leon Panetta for the meeting of defense minister of
NATO member-countries in Brussels, cited him as saying that “Israel
is likely to strike sometime in April, May or June”.

As reported by Israeli zman.com portal “Panetta is convinced that
Israel will, by all means, try to attack Iran before the Iranian
centrifuges for enriching uranium are transferred to heavily fortified
underground bunkers and the Islamic Republic enters the so-called
‘immunity zone’ [a point where Tehran’s nuclear program becomes
invulnerable to physical attack].”

Israeli politicians and militaries stress that the “Iranian issue”
will be incomparably harder to solve after Iran has created its
nuclear weapon.

“Many analysts estimate that a nuclear Iran will be more complicated
to deal with, more dangerous and more costly in blood than if it is
stopped today,” said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “Whoever
says later might find that it will be too late.”

In the highlight of military confrontation between Israel and Iran,
today more than ever it is talked about the extent of Azerbaijan’s
involvement in the possible war, as well as the chances of resuming
active hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh.

On March 30 Russian Pavda.ru, with a reference to Foreign Policy
magazine, cited fragments from American military expert Mark Perry’s
article (published in the magazine) on covert military talks between
Israel and Azerbaijan.

These talks were declassified and made public thanks to the U.S.
State Department representatives in Baku as well as WikiLeaks.

The key point in the declassified information comes down to the fact
that Israel is expanding its aircraft industry in Azerbaijan and
establishing military bases at vacant former soviet airfields in the
vicinity of Iran’s northern territories.

“Four senior diplomats and military intelligence officers say
that the United States has concluded that Israel has recently been
granted access to airbases on Iran’s northern border. To do what,
exactly, is not clear. The Israelis have bought an airfield, a senior
administration official told me in early February, and the airfield
is called Azerbaijan,” Perry writes.

Israeli IAI company has founded a joint Azad Systems aircraft
manufacturing venture in Azerbaijan, producing Heron, Searcher,
Aerostar and Orbiter-M drones. An international academy opened in
Baku teaching drone control.

How might the possible war affect the Karabakh issue?

On March 27 in Seoul, Azeri president Ilham Aliyev attempted at
merging two urgent issues of big politics – regional (Karabakh)
and global (Iran) – into one, stating that “Azerbaijan believes
it’s highly important to prevent its territory from being used as a
transit route for nuclear snuggling, but because of the continuing
occupation of 20 percent of our lands by neighboring Armenia, there
is no guarantee of control over the 130 km of our internationally
recognized southern border.”

Under the circumstances of heightened tensions between Tehran and
Baku, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Safar Abiyev visited Iran and
promised that his country would not become a base for the offensive
against Iran.

Iranian Press TV writes: “The relations between the neighbors have
tensed after Azerbaijan signed a $1.6 billion arms deal with Israel,
mainly drones and anti-aircraft defense systems. Tehran summoned the
Azeri ambassador in Iran and handed him a note of protest against
the deal. Azeri officials, however, responded saying the armament
is purchased for the liberation of the occupied 20 percent of its
territories.”

Many experts in Armenia do not rule out that in case of Israel striking
Iran, Azerbaijan might take advantage of the chaos in the region and
go for a military venture against Nagorno Karabakh.

From: A. Papazian

DARCHINYAN HEADS FOR WBC BANTAMWEIGHT BELT

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 3, 2012 – 11:04 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – After eight grueling weeks of intense training, Vic
“Raging Bull” Darchinyan (37-4-1, 27 KOs) says he’s ready to leave
everything in the ring when he challenges WBC bantamweight champion,
Shinsuke Yamanaka (15-0-2, 11 KOs) for his title on April 6 in Tokyo,
Japan.

Having won world titles in the flyweight and super flyweight divisions,
Darchinyan seeks another championship in his third weight class,
Fightnews.com reports.

“The training is done and I’m ready to dethrone Yamanaka,” said
Darchinyan. “It was an exhausting training camp, but I paid the
price and I’m in excellent shape. Getting a victory in Japan will
be a difficult task, except my determination to bring home another
world title is driving me like never before. I’m confident that I’ll
be crowned world champion once again.”

From: A. Papazian