Author: Badalian Vardan

Los Angeles Times, CA
Nov 2 2008

Darchinyan hits the bull’s-eye in win

Armenian boxer stops Mexico’s Mijares in the ninth round to add WBC,
WBA 115-pound titles to his IBF belt.

By Bill Dwyre
November 2, 2008

It’s hard to be a raging bull when you weigh only 115 pounds, but Vic
Darchinyan lived up to the nickname Saturday night.

A 32-year-old Armenian boxer who lives in Australia, Darchinyan took a
30-1-1 record into a fight at the Home Depot Center in Carson that he
was supposed to lose to Mexico’s Cristian Mijares (36-3-2).

On most cards, Darchinyan didn’t even lose a round.

After he had hit Mijares, 27, with about 200 hard lefts, including one
that knocked him down in the first round, Darchinyan chased Mijares
across the ring as the ninth round of the scheduled 12 was about to
end. As Mijares ran backward, Darchinyan chased and caught him with
yet another solid left. Mijares went down, flat on his back. Referee
Lou Moret started to count, then saw Mijares wasn’t stirring much and
waved the fight to an end.

The victory unified three alphabet-soup sanctioning divisions — IBF,
WBC, WBA — the latter two of which had Mijares as champ. So it’s
reasonable to consider Darchinyan the best super flyweight in the
world.

"From the first round, I promised I would fight smart, would destroy
him with the left," he said. "I just thank God it wasn’t like Burgos,
because he took a lot of lefts, too."

In the same ring on March 3, 2007, Darchinyan beat Victor Burgos, a
bout stopped in the final round. Soon, Burgos was taken to the
hospital with brain injuries, and he is still in therapy trying to
recover from that.

Mijares made it to the news conference afterward, cuts under both
eyes, and said, "No excuses. He’s a great champion."

If Darchinyan’s wild attacks weren’t enough for the 3,076 fans who
showed up on a rainy night and left the bulk of the seats in the Home
Depot Center tennis stadium empty, then the semi-main event was.

In that one, 25-year-old Olympian Andre Dirrell, a bronze medalist in
Athens in 2004 with a 16-0 pro record and a great future, ran into
another raging bull, a 167-pound Russian named Victor Oganov. Oganov
is 32, entered with a record of 28-1, all 28 wins by knockout, and
fought in a style best described as a bull in a China closet.

Oganov only moved forward. He took shot after shot and kept coming
forward. In the first round, Dirrell got him up against the ropes and
threw at least 25 uninterrupted hard punches. The flurry ended mostly
because Dirrell’s arms started to go limp. Oganov, more like a brick
building than a person, shrugged and started coming forward again.

Finally, in the sixth round, with Dirrell having won the previous five
on all three judges’ cards, Dirrell got Oganov against the ropes and
staggered him slightly. That was enough for referee Ray Corona, who
stopped the fight.

Oganov, battered and bloody and still wanting more, mouthed a curse
word to Corona several times and the crowd, upholding boxing’s
standards for blood thirst, booed the referee.

Corona said later he had seen Oganov punished enough.

Dwyre is a Times staff writer.

p-boxing2-2008nov02,0,6652560.story

PanARMENIAN.Net

Iran wants to join discussion on Caucasus security zone creation
01.11.2008 15:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran has showed interest in the discussion on
creation of a Caucasus security zone but Russia has not received any
proposal on the issue from Iran yet, Russian Foreign Minister said.

`Iran is interested in joining the discussion,’
Sergei Lavrov said adding that he referred to the subject during talks
with his Iranian counterpart.

The Russian Minister also reminded about Turkey’s Caucasus
Stability and Cooperation Pact.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Russian policemen who killed Armenian citizen face life imprisonment
31.10.2008 15:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Three Russian policemen, who murdered Armenian
citizen Armen Gasparyan, 30, are facing life imprisonment for their
crime, said Nikolay Nikotin, head of Saratov investigating committee.

The police officers wanted to compel confession of gold theft from
Armen Gasparyan. They beat him severely and then burned. All of them
were drunk, Vzglyad-Info reports.

The three confessed of the killing. On October 29 night, they took
Gasparyan to a wasteland and beat him. Then they poured petrol over
him and burned. When the young man tried to run away, they killed him
and buried.

TURKS WILL BE TURKS

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
29 Oct 2008
Armenia

Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Khulus Kylydj announced yesterday:
"Turkey will open its border with Armenia only after the latter
withdraws its troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Commenting on the announcement made by Serge Sargsyan in Nagorno
Karabakh the day before, saying that the opening of the border with
Armenia will have a positive impact on the settlement of Karabakh
conflict, Kylydj said: "Armenia doesn’t have the right to impose
any conditions upon Turkey. Turkey has always protected Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity and will always do so."

The Turkish diplomat also said: "If Armenia intends to establish
regular relations with neighbor countries, then it must firstly
review its invasion policy and withdraw its troops from the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan.

FRENCH ENVOY SAYS EU SUPPORTS TURKEY’S FIGHT AGAINST PKK VIOLENCE

Anadolu Agency
Oct 29 2008
Turkey

Emie, the French ambassador in Ankara, said that the EU would stand
with Turkey on the fight against PKK since nothing could justify
violence.

The ambassador of France, holding the rotating presidency of the
European Union (EU), reaffirmed on Tuesday the union’s support for
Turkey’s fight against PKK violence.

Bernard Emie, the French ambassador in Ankara, said that the EU
would stand with Turkey on the fight against PKK since nothing could
justify violence.

"The PKK is for all of us a terrorist organization and is treated
accordingly in all our countries," Emie said during a luncheon he
hosted in honor of Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who is also
the chief negotiator for the EU.

Emie said that the EU was very much confident that the Turkish
government would deal with that issue (terrorism) with the arms
of democracy.

On the crisis in Caucasus, Emie said that the French presidency of
the EU supported Turkey’s initiatives (the Turkish idea of a platform
for cooperation and stability in the Caucasus and President Abdullah
Gul’s trip to Yerevan on September 6).

Emie said that there was yet much that remained to be done to restore
the full stability of the region and the EU presidency had decided
to work hand in hand.

Referring to Turkey’s EU membership bid, the ambassador said that
the French presidency was holding its course and keeping its promises.

"I am glad that Turkish authorities acknowledged the fact that France’s
pledge of a neutral, objective and impartial presidency towards Turkey
was kept," Emie said.

Emie expressed belief that the draft for the national program on
integration of the acquis had the potential to become an important
roadmap for the reforms that still needed to be done.

"We also very much hope that some further progress will be registered
in terms of freedom of expression," the ambassador said.

Emie also said that the French presidency was doing its utmost to
carry on, with all the European partners, the preparatory work for
the opening of new chapters.

"We very much hope that the full involvement of the Turkish side
that we have witnessed in the past weeks, under your leadership,
will continue to prevail so that we should be in a position to open
two chapters," the French ambassador said.

Emie expressed hope that the talks held in Cyprus would yield results
some time soon, and said that the EU stood ready to assist and to
continue to bring its direct assistance to the Turkish Cypriots that
were also members of the European family.

The French ambassador also congratulated Turkey on its election as
a non-permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council
for the term 2009-2010.

A FORK IN THE SILK ROAD
By Borut Grgic And Alexandros Petersen

Georgiandaily
cle/SB122522752774177399.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
h ttp://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=7949&Itemid=132
Oct 29 2008
NY

Generally considered to be a small, booming post-Soviet petro-state,
Azerbaijan is a country on the maps of oil men but on the margins
of Europe and the greater Middle East. Russia’s August invasion of
Georgia, however, has caused Western decision makers to take another
look at the region, and Azerbaijan in particular.

There is an increasing realization among Western strategists and
energy producers that Azerbaijan — nexus of the Black Sea and Caspian
regions, neighbor of Russia, Iran and Turkey, and bottleneck for
Western links to the rich resources and growing markets of Central
Asia — is a pivotal point in Eurasia. And, as this month’s elections
there showed, it is a country on the brink. Partly as a function
of its geographical position, but also due to shifting dynamics of
influence in the region, the leaders and population of Azerbaijan
are being enticed to move in one of two general directions: toward
Western integration or Russian-dominated "Eurasianism."

Until now, Azerbaijan’s leadership has pursued a canny "all options
open" foreign policy, but one that was firmly oriented toward Europe
and the broader West. Its former president, Heydar Aliyev, daringly
challenged Russia’s self-proclaimed sphere of influence long before
Georgia did, by building the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and a
parallel line for natural gas that directly reach Western markets. Baku
actively lobbied for U.S., NATO and EU involvement in the region to
provide for Caspian maritime security and to help solve its "frozen"
conflict with Armenia over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But Azerbaijanis were disappointed by the West’s reaction to this
summer’s events in next-door Georgia, and the growing inclination in
many European capitals to capitulate to Russia in the broader Black Sea
region. While Russian tanks menaced Tbilisi, Baku began exporting oil
through Russia and Iran. Now Moscow, a longtime friend of Armenia’s
in the Karabakh conflict, has begun quietly supporting Azerbaijan’s
position in the hopes of securing a deal for all of Azerbaijan’s
available natural gas exports. In the absence of incentives or
even attention from the West, Baku is seriously considering a major
foreign-policy reversal.

This shift comes at exactly the wrong time for European and
broader Western interests. This month, a British auditing company
confirmed that the country across the Caspian from Azerbaijan,
Turkmenistan, has the world’s fourth-largest natural gas field and
probably enough total reserves to meet export commitments to Russia,
China and Europe. Kazakhstan is also stepping up its westward oil
exports. The only route for these supplies to reach Europe passes
through Azerbaijan.

Western attention has lately been focused on governance in Azerbaijan,
with election monitors from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe giving Baku a balanced progress report on
democratic development. The Oct. 15 election — which the incumbent
president, Ilham Aliyev, won handily with over 90% of the vote — for
the first time met most international standards and marked a genuine
improvement in election conduct. There were missing elements too,
namely the lack of a competitive campaigning climate. But Western
preoccupation with the election process misses the full picture
of governance in Azerbaijan and, more importantly, ignores the
geopolitical imperatives of the region.

In the past year, Azerbaijan was the world’s fastest reforming country,
according to the World Bank. It is a global leader in energy-sector
transparency and sustainable development. Both the World Bank and the
OSCE report that it has made significant strides in building viable
institutions and bolstering the independence of its judiciary —
claims that its democratic neighbor, Georgia, cannot make.

But it is Azerbaijan’s role as a regional weather vane that draws
the most Western focus. The leaders of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and even Armenia look to Baku for signals of where they
should take their multivector foreign policies. Should Azerbaijan let
itself be wooed by Russia at the expense of its links to the West,
a strategic chunk of Eurasia would likely follow suit.

Western leaders must not only realize the geopolitical importance
of Azerbaijan, but take action to strengthen ties that reflect
that understanding. Above all, the EU must seek to foster conflict
resolution in the Caucasus and build links across the Caspian —
with Azerbaijan as a central partner in those efforts. After the
conflict in Georgia, the key to doing so is Turkey, Azerbaijan’s
traditional cultural and linguistic friend, and the only NATO
country to produce a serious and comprehensive plan for stability,
cooperation and development in the region. Western capitals would do
well to support Ankara’s Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Pact in
providing a workable forum for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia,
and a resolution of tensions in Georgia which menace energy, transport
and trade links with broader Eurasia.

Despite preoccupations with U.S. presidential politics and the global
financial crisis, the West must engage Azerbaijan now. The geopolitical
fate of the Eurasian continent is at stake.

Mr. Grgic is chairman of the Institute for Strategic Studies in
Ljubljana. Mr. Petersen is adjunct fellow with the Russia and Eurasia
Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington.

WE ARE THE "OTHERS," LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S SUPPORTERS STATE

Noyan Tapan
Oct 29, 2008

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. A group of Levon Ter-Petrosian’s
supporters, on October 28, made a joint statement demanding bringing
an accusation to them, as well, for actions ascribed to defendants on
the March 1 case Myasnik Malkhasian, Sasun Mikayelian, Hakob Hakobian,
Alexander Arzumanian, Shant Haroutiunian, Grigor Voskerchian, Suren
Sirunian, Nikol Pashinian, Khachatur Sukiasian, Hamlet Hovhannisian,
and Virab Manukian. The statement was signed by Gagik Jhangirian,
Smbat Ayvazian, Christapor Elazian, Petros Makeyan, Vardan Malkhasian,
Mkrtich Sapeyan, Zhora Sapeyan, Husik David Matevosian, Levon Zurabian,
Ararat Zurabian, Arshak Banuchian, Karapet Rubinian, Suren Sureniants,
and others.

It should be mentioned that according to the official report, the
preliminary investigation of the above mentioned case "cleared up and
motivated that after L. Ter-Petrosian’s obvious defeat in the Republic
of Armenia presidential elections held on February 19, 2008" the above
mentioned persons "and others making sure that it is impossible to
come to power by the procedure established by the RA Constitution,
with a direct intention and purpose of seizing the state power in
the Republic of Armenia, coming to an agreement, each one according
to the role rerserved for him, organized and immediately carried out
deliberate actions aimed at overthrowing the RA constitutional order
and seizing the state power by force through destabilizing the home
political situation of the state and shattering the state system."

According to the statement authors, they are the "others," and
all above mentioned actions were also equally done by them. And if
law-enforcers revealed corpus delicti in the actions of the above
mentioned 11 citizens, so they demand using the law equally.

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

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I VISITING IRAN

His Holiness Aram I yesterday arrived in Tehran with a delegation
representing the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. The visitation program
of His Holiness includes Christian-Muslim dialogue on ‘family today’, a
keynote speech to be delivered at a public forum on ‘Christian Education
Today’ and meetings with community and state representatives.

The Armenian community of Iran has its deep roots in the history of the
country. More than 200 thousand Armenians live in major cities of Iran such
as Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Ourmia, Shiraz. The Armenian community is
represented with 2 deputies, the only Christian deputies, in the parliament
of the country.

##
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.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: NAGORNYY KARABAKH STATUS IS THE MAIN PROBLEM

ArmInfo
2008-10-29 12:22:00

ArmInfo. Nagornyy Karabakh status, the problem of recognition and
realization of Nagornyy Karabakh people’s right for self-determination
is the main problem, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said
in an interview with the BBC.

‘We think we can solve the problem in case of the political will of
both parties to the conflict’, – he said.

Asked why Armenia did not follow Russia in the matter of recognition
of South Ossetia’s independence, Nalbandyan replied: ‘We have the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. We have not yet recognized Nagornyy
Karabakh though there were moments to do that, let’s say when Kosovo
was recognized. They say, we have lost the moment. This time there
was a moment connected with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but we think
we are at the stage of serious talks on Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
settlement and we hope these talks will lead to the compromised
resolving’, – the minister said.

TURKISH PRESIDENT AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ZHAMANAK DAILY DISCUSS ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 28, 2008

ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 28, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. On the occasion of
the 100th anniversary of Zhamanak daily, Turkish President Abdullah Gul
received the daily’s editor-in-chief Ara Kochunyan in Istanbul. Another
three prominent figures of the Armenian community of Istanbul:
the chairman of the guardianship of Surb Prkich National Hospital,
the chairman of the guardianship of the Karagyozian orphanage,
and the national benefactor Avet Yerkanian also took part in the
meeting. Abdullah Gul congratulated them on the 100th jubilee of the
daily and wished succees in its further activities.

During a talk with Noyan Tapan, the editor-in-chief of Istanbul-based
Zhamanak Ara Kochunyan told the details of the meeting. In his
words, the meeting lasted for about 45 minutes in quite a warm
atmosphere. Two high-ranking Turkish officials, the chief advisor
to the Turkish president on foreign policy and the head of the
presidential staff, were also present at the meeting, during which
two issues – Armenian-Turkish relations and problems of Turkey’s
Armenian community were mainly discussed.

Speaking about his visit to Armenia, the Turkish president pointed
out that it made quite a good impression on him. According to A. Gul,
some problems exist between Armenia and Turkey, due to which the
relations between the two countries are not at the desirable level. He
said that he had left for Armenia not with the aim of putting forward
some issues but in order to create such a climate that would allow
to overcome the existing problems, including those between the sides
and the regional ones.

A. Gul noted that by his observations, the Armenian leadership is
concerned about the same problems that worry them, which is conditioned
by the situation in the region.

The Turkish president underlined the necessity of displaying
a political will in order to smooth the path for solving these
problems. He said that the first step has already been taken in this
direction: the respective commissions have been given to the foreign
ministers. A. Gul added that it is necessary to take constructive
approaches in order to encourage the sides to proceed along this path.

Reminding about the visit to Baku, which he paid after visiting
Yerevan, Abdullah Gul said that both he and Azeri President Ilham
Aliyev have a positive opinion about Serzh Sargsyan. He expressed
confidence that the Armenian president is of the same opinion about
them.

Speaking about Turkey’s becoming a non-permanent member of the UN
Security Council, A. Gul stated that this fact makes Turkey more
responsible for peace in the world, especially under conditions of the
current problems in the Caucasus. As regards the proposal to create
a Caucasian security and cooperation platform, the Turkish president
stressed that the Armenian authorities are also in favor of this idea.

Ara Kochunyan reported that the second part of their talk with Gul
concerned the problems of the Armenian community in Turkey. Ara
Kochunyan raised the problems of community structures, including
schools. The Turkish president assured them that solutions had been
given, to some extent, to the indicated problems, while some problems
will be discussed and dealt with. A. Gul pointed out that for Turkey,
all its compatriots and citizens are equal.

When concluding his speech, Abdullah Gul expressed a high opinion
about the activities of the Armenian community establishments.

At the end of the meeting, the Armenian delegation presented the
Turkish president with souvenirs on the occasion of the daily’s
jubilee.