Author: Chakrian Hovsep

Manchester United new boy Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the kind of player all defenders hate to play against,  his former international coach Tom Jones said in an interview with 

Jones first spotted a raw teenager appearing in Armenia’s Under-21s against their counterparts from Liechtenstein back in 2006. The 17-year-old caught the coach’s eye in Yerevan and has never looked back since, earning a dream move to Old Trafford this summer to become part of Jose Mourinho’s new-look United side.

In the mid-2000s, Jones was assisting Armenia manager Ian Porterfield, Sunderland’s 1973 FA Cup final hero, after a stint in South Korea. The coach took over as interim boss when Porterfield sadly lost his battle with cancer and, in his six games in charge, helped engender a change in mindset that has benefited an attacking spark like Mkhitaryan.

Clearly, his first impression of the young FC Pyunik prospect was a positive one. “I was with the main national side but the first time I saw Henrikh was when he was playing for the Under-21s,” Jones told ManUtd.com. “I was there sitting with Vardan [Minasyan], who was a coach with the national team and ended up taking over when I left.

“I said: ‘He’s too good to be playing in that team. Get him in the full squad.’ From that time, he just joined the full squad and was regularly part of the training.”

Porterfield acted on the recommendation and handed Mkhitaryan his senior international debut as a substitute against Andorra. The youngster handled the step up in his stride, helped by the fact he was playing his club football with Pyunik. “I quickly found out most of the players, around 80 per cent, came from that one big team,” said Jones. “That included the Under-21s as well. A lot of players knew each other and were comfortable with each other.”

Jones and Porterfield found Mkhitaryan to be a charming individual, one who seemed at home among older colleagues. “He was a great lad,” recalled Jones. “Really, really polite and well spoken. The good thing as well, from my point of view, was his English was very good. His mother was involved with the Armenian FA.”

Yet it was on the pitch where Henrikh’s personality really came out, showing a fearlessness and precocious attitude to the game.

“He is one of them – a glider,” said Jones. “When he’s got the ball at his feet, he just runs at people and simply creates so many problems for defenders because his first thought is to get at them. People don’t like that, of course, and, when they start coming and stepping out, he is sliding balls in between them. He is very clever like that – he could make a goal and score a goal.

“I always liked him to play just behind the front two. If you play two up top there, he was the one who could join in. That’s why he’s scored goals and why I said the boy can make a goal and score a goal. He’s got both sides of the game in him and that’s because he is fearless. He gets at people, runs at people and defenders hate that.

“They can’t touch him and it’s what he did very well. I also watched him play for Pyunik a few times, in different games when I was out there. But even when you see him in training, he’s an unbelievable talent.”

Mkhitaryan will be a key figure for Armenia when they embark on a qualifying group that includes Romania, Denmark and Poland as they bid to reach the next World Cup finals in Russia. A bolder approach has aided the national team’s cause and Jones feels he had a big role to play in instilling more confidence into the side.

“They’ve never qualified for a major tournament but, if you look at some of their results, they can always turn you over,” he said. “Vardan was frightened we were going to become too open but I managed to convince Ian, as he was a bit more defensive, that we were not going to get beaten heavily.

“Ian showed me a few DVDs and I just didn’t see the opposition goalkeeper because we were camped in our own half on damage limitation. I changed that mentality and just said: ‘Let’s press up the pitch and stop them playing’. It worked wonders for us and everybody could see the benefits and a change in that mindset from that day.”

The only question mark will be whether Mhkitaryan can deal with the demands of playing for one of the world’s biggest clubs but Jones believes this won’t be a problem for the 27-year-old. “I’m sure Henrikh was already an idol in Armenia when playing for Borussia Dortmund,” he reasoned. “To go to a club like United is a different level again for a player from such a small country but I think he will cope.

“He has already stepped up from Armenia to Dortmund and I think Liverpool tried to sign him a number of years ago as well. I mentioned him to quite a few managers when I came back to England, including Phil Parkinson when he was at Hull City. It was just a matter of whether they could get international clearance. Once that opened up, I think that was the stepping stone for Henrikh to go to Germany and he has never looked back.”

Jones is still coaching – he is currently with non-league team Chippenham Town and is eagerly anticipating the new season. “Chippenham are a very progressive club,” he stated. “We want to get in the Conference South. The chairman has got good ambitions and we’ll be ready to have a right go at it this year.”

Although he’ll be busy with his own side, the former Swindon Town midfielder will also be keeping a close eye on how Mkhitaryan fares at Old Trafford in 2016/17. “The boy is a hell of a talent,” he insisted, and we are all looking forward to seeing him in the red shirt.”

New United signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan will thrive under Jose Mourinho’s playing style and training methods, according to former Armenia coach Raymond Verheijen, according to . 

The midfielder, who is Armenia’s all-time top scorer, made the £26 million move to Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund last week.

The 27-year-old is expected to slot in on the right wing of Mourinho’s new-look side and could make his debut in that famous red shirt against Wigan on Saturday.

Although he is the first Armenian to ever play in the Premier League, Verheijen believes Mkhitaryan’s time at Dortmund will stand him in good stead in adjusting to the rigours of English football.

“What I think has been very smart is that he went from Shakhtar to Dortmund and from Dortmund to United.” he told M.E.N. Sport.

“I think the Bundesliga has made him sufficiently strong to take the next step to the Premier League. He will need time to adapt, but I trust Mourinho and his staff to let him gradually adapt to that level.”

Known for his blistering pace, Mkhitaryan once joked that had he not made it as a footballer, he would have been a sprinter instead.

This was a quality that struck Verheijen, who has also worked with Manchester City, the Netherlands, Barcelona and Russia, when he was involved with the Armenia national team in 2012.

“There is one characteristic of him that I have almost never seen with other players and that is the fact that he has an acceleration after an acceleration,” he said.

“When he starts dribbling, he accelerates quickly but then, just before somebody tries to challenge him, he can accelerate for a second time. That is something that I thought was very special.

“That is a talent that he has which makes him difficult to defend, especially in the counter-attack. United need to make sure he gets the ball as quickly as possible.”

One of Mourinho’s hallmarks is “his less is more” approach to training, with extensive ball work sessions favoured over fitness focused drills without the ball.

Verheijen previously criticised Mourinho’s predecessors, Louis van Gaal and David Moyes, for over-training United’s players and feels Mourinho’s approach will get more out of Mkhitaryan et al.

“If you look with Chelsea winning the title two years ago, they played with the same XI in almost every game,” he said.

“I think the same will happen this year with United. He will have significantly less injuries than Van Gaal and Moyes and he will play with the same XI much more often.

“When you do play and train with the same XI more often, the communication between your players and the tactical understanding between your players increases dramatically.”

On 30 June Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan had a meeting in Yerevan with OSCEChairman-in-Office, German minister for foreign affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Issues relating to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict resolution and regional processes were on the discussion agenda.

President Sahakyan noted that the official Stepanakert remained adhered to the peaceful settlement of the conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, underlining the imperative of restoring the full-fledged negotiation format with the direct participation of Artsakh.

Bako Sahakyan highlighted elaborating and introducing mechanisms for investigating incidents of the ceasefire violation in the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict zone, which would foster maintaining peace and stability in the region and exert a constructive influence on the further pace of the negotiation process.

NKR foreign minister Karen Mirzoyan, personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and other officials partook in the meeting.

A German tourist was found dead in a hotel in the Manavgat district of the southern province of Antalya on June 2, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Gabrielle Maria Dietter, 66, arrived in Manavgat with her husband Georg Hans Dietter for a vacation on June 1.

However, the next morning Hans Dietter was unable to wake his wife up and asked the hotel staff for help.

Medical staff at the hospital then determined that Dietter had lost her life.

Her dead body was sent to the forensic medicine institute in Antalya for an autopsy after the prosecutor’s examinations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday approved a new government formed by one of his most trusted allies, who immediately asserted his intention to institute constitutional reforms that would expand the powers of the presidency, the Associated Press reports.

Binali Yildirim, 60, formerly minister of transport and communications, replaces Ahmet Davutoglu, who stepped down on Sunday amid a range of differences with the president, including Davutoglu’s apparently less-than-enthusiastic stance toward an overhaul of the constitution to give the largely ceremonial presidency executive powers.

“We will immediately start work to achieve a new constitution, including a presidential system,” Yildirim told lawmakers of his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in his first speech after taking office.

“Our priority is to make the constitution in harmony with the de-facto situation regarding our president’s ties to the people,” Yildirim said.

The new government — which Yildirim is widely believed to have formed in consultation with Erdogan — includes nine new names, although most ministers from Davutoglu’s previous Cabinet retained key portfolios.

They include Mevlut Cavusoglu, who remains foreign minister, and Mehmet Simsek, the deputy minister who heads economic affairs.

Volkan Bozkir, the minister in charge of relations with the European Union, was replaced by Omer Celik, a founding member of the AKP who is known to be close to the president. Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, kept his position as energy minister.

In a clear sign that Erdogan would continue to influence government, he was scheduled to chair the new Cabinet’s first meeting at his palace on Wednesday.

Bundestag Vice President Edelgard Bulmahn visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today accompanied by Vice-President of the Armenian National Assembly Edward Sharmazanov to pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Mrs. Bulmahn visited the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute and left a note in the Book of Honorary Guest.

“I’m impressed by my visit to the Museum and feel sorry for all the sufferings the Armenian nation went through during those years,” Edelgard Bulmahn told reporters.

“As a representative of the Bundestag I have to speak about German responsibility. Our Parliament is trying to express its official attitude on the events and thus prevent the reoccurrence of similar crimes in the future,” Mrs. Bulmahn said.

 

 

 

“The main emphasis of the Vienna meeting was the commitment of the parties to return to the ceasefire agreements signed in 1994 and 1995,” Speaker of the NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghulayn said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia.

Therefore, he said, the initial basis of the process inspires hope that Artsakh will return to the negotiating table, as the 1994-1995 agreements were signed between Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan.

The Speaker does not rule out that military actions could resume had there been no meeting in Vienna.

According to Ashot Ghulyan, there is no common attitude in Armenia towards the Minsk Group, as the non-active and non-adequate reaction of the Co-Chairs led to Azerbaijan’s aggression.

“Azerbaijan is aware that there can be no international support for a military solution to Karabakh conflict,” Ghulyan said. He added that “Azerbaijan had no political will to declare about its military aspirations in Vienna.”

As for Artsakh’s recognition by Armenia, the Speaker said: “Had the bill been brought to the Parliament floor during the four-day war, it would be more comprehensible, but the submission of the bill 20 days later brought about a number of concerns. It could harm the fragile negotiation process.”

The military actions in early April come to prove that any assault of the rival is doomed to fail, Mr. Ghulyan said.

The Speaker said “there are no guarantees that Azerbaijan will not violate its commitments in the future.” Therefore, he said, the Armenian side should develop a clear plan of actions and make necessary legislative amendments.

The historic Armenian “rock-temple” in Mazgirt,  Dersim Province, has been seriously damaged by treasure hunters, reports, quoting Dicle news agency.

According to the source, the church – 5 m high and with two small windows – is targeted by treasure hunters. Its condition is deplorable. The Altar has also been destroyed.

The source reminds that the church is not the only legacy of the Armenian nation damaged by treasure hunters in Turkey.

Asbarez – The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund proclaimed a joint appeal with all major Armenian organizations of the Western United States, to develop and strengthen Artsakh’s statehood and, especially today, to further its security:

At this time of crisis, when the people of Artsakh are engaged in a life-and-death struggle to defend our homeland against the blatant aggression of the Azeri armed forces,

We, the Armenian churches, organizations, and unions of the Western United States declare that:

ACTING in the spirit of pan-Armenian unity;

ASSERTING that the security of Artsakh is of indisputable and absolute importance to every Armenian;

RECOGNIZING the crucial and ongoing role which the Armenia Fund (Hayastan All-Armenian Fund) has had for the past quarter century in the development and strengthening of Artsakh’s statehood, by uniting the largest structures of the Armenian diaspora around this vision,

We REAFFIRM our unanimous support of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s mission and goals,

AND

APPEAL to all Armenian Americans to generously contribute to the Armenia Fund’s HELP ARTSAKH! Telethon, which will be broadcast by all Armenian television channels in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 14, 2016. This special Telethon is dedicated to addressing the urgent humanitarian needs of war-torn Artsakh.

Contributing to the security of the homeland is the duty of every Armenian.

May 9, 2016
Los Angeles, California

Western Diocese of the Apostolic Church of North America, Burbank

Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, La Crescenta

Armenian Evangelical Union of North America

Armenian Catholic Eparchy of U.S. and Canada

Social Democrat Hunchakian Party of the Western USA

Armenian Democratic Liberal (Ramgavar) Party, U.S. Western Region

Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Western U.S. Central Committee

A.G.B.U. Western District Committee

Armenian Relief Society of Western USA

Armenian Assembly of America, Southern California Regional Council