Author: Garo Vardanian

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s agent Raiola, who negotiated the £27m switch to Old Trafford, says he was always convinced his man had what it took to succeed in the English game, reports.

Mino Raiola says the new “more aggressive” Henrikh Mkhitaryan is primed to take the Premier League by storm.

The Armenian, a £27million signing from Borussia Dortmund this summer, struggled to adapt earlier this season with boss Jose Mourinho preferring others in his place.

But the Manchester United manager has turned to the 27-year-old in recent weeks and Mlkhitaryan has repaid his faith with a string of impressive performances.

And agent Raiola, who negotiated the switch to Old Trafford, says he was always convinced his man had what it took to succeed in the English game.

“He showed his class in Germany,” he told talkSPORT . “But now I see a more aggressive, determined player than in Germany. Now he has this aggressiveness that the Premier League needs.

“I knew Micki could come in and be one of the best in the Premier League. He showed that in Ukraine, in Germany.

“I see that now Manchester United is coming together. It is getting balanced.”

Hripsime Khurshudyan of Armenia, competing in the women’s +75kg weightlifting event in which she ranked 3rd and for which she was awarded a bronze medal, has been disqualified from the Olympic Games London 2012, Press Service of the International Olympic Committee reports.

Re-analysis of Khurshudyan’s samples from London 2012 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substances dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol) and stanozolol.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mrs Gunilla Lindberg and Mr Ugur Erdener, decided the following:

1. The Athlete, Hripsime Khurshudyan:
   1. is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 (presence and/or use of Prohibited Substances or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete’s bodily specimen),
   2. is disqualified from the event in which she participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games London 2012, namely the women’s +75kg weightlifting event, in which she ranked 3rd and for which she was awarded a bronze medal,
   3. has the medal, the medallist pin and the diploma obtained in the women’s +75kg weightlifting event withdrawn and is ordered to return the same.
2. The IWF is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned event accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.
3. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia shall ensure full implementation of this decision.
4. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the medal, the medallist pin and diploma awarded in connection with the women’s +75kg weightlifting event to the Athlete.
5. This decision enters into force immediately.

On Sunday, 17-year-old Talar Simonian will get the chance to say thank you to the country that has taken her in, reports.

The Syrian Armenian refugee will sing with her uncle accompanying her at Sunday’s Concert for Gratitude at the Crystal Grand Banquet Hall in Mississauga.

“When I arrived, it felt like home,” she said on CBC’s Metro Morning. “[People] were waiting for us at the airport.”

Simonian said she plans on singing an Armenian song called Armenian News, about a bird. “It’s asking, ‘Why did you leave and go very far and not come back, we’re sad now,’” she said.

Simonian arrived in Canada a year ago with her family after being forced to leave their home in Aleppo four years ago because of the war.

“It was raining bombs,” she recalled. “The washroom was the safest place in the home so we spent most of our time there.”

Now, she says, life feels safer and more peaceful. “Canada is protecting our families,” she said. “We feel like we are at home.”

Simonian is one of many Syrian Armenian refugees performing on Sunday at the Concert for Gratitude.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire about 90 times last night, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival used firearms of different calibers as it fired over 1,100 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

On November 19 the Azeri forces used a 60mm mine thrower in the northeastern direction of the line of contact.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep control of the situation at the frontline and confidently continue with their military duty.

On November 18^th, 2016, 2 postage stamps dedicated to the theme “Museums of Armenia. Sergey Paradjanov Museum” have been cancelled and put into circulation.

The postage stamps with nominal values of 300 AMD and 380 AMD are printed in “Cartor” printing house in France.

The postage stamp with nominal value of 300 AMD depicts a part of the facade of the Sergey Paradjanov Museum and the stamp with nominal value of 380 AMD represents the collage image of the halls of the S. Paradjanov Museum.

The postage stamps were cancelled by the “HayPost” CJSC Trust Manager Juan Pablo Gechidjian, the President of the Union of Philatelists of the RA Hovik Musayelyan and the Director of the Sergey Paradjanov Museum Zaven Sargsyan.

Date of issue: November 18, 2016

Designer: David Dovlatyan

Printing house: Cartor, France

Size: 60,0 x 30,0 mm

Print run: 50 000 x 2

Turkey could hold a referendum on whether to continue membership talks with the European Union next year, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, repeating his warning to Brussels that it needed to “make up its mind” on Turkish accession, reports.

In a speech in Ankara broadcast on television, Erdogan urged Turks to be patient until the end of the year and then said a vote could be held on EU membership.

Erdogan also said that he would approve reinstating the death penalty – a move that would likely end any hope of Turkish membership of the EU – if parliament passed a law on it, and said that too could be part of a referendum.

Turkey is expected to hold a national vote on constitutional changes next spring, including boosting the powers of Erdogan’s office to create a presidential system akin to that of the United States or France.

A car bomb attack in the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast region killed eight people Friday, hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish legislators for questioning in terror-related probes, the Associated Press reports.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said two police officers, a technician and five civilians died in the attack near a building used by the riot police. Up to 100 people were hurt in the blast but only seven of them remain in hospital, he said.

Yildirim also said one of the assailants was “caught dead” but did not provide details.

The Diyarbakir governor’s office said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, had claimed the attack, which the state-run Anadolu Agency said was carried out with a minibus laden with a ton of explosives.

Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan has a courtesy meeting with Seyed Kazem Sajadi, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Repiblic of Iran to Armenia.

During the meeting the parties discussed issues related to Armenian-Iranian bilateral cooperation, as well as regional and international developments.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul will apply to the Turkish authorities with a request to obtain permission to hold elections of a new Patriarch. The decision was made at the church meeting held on October 26, accoridng to the official website of the

The seat has been vacant since 2008 because of the illness of His Holiness Patriarch Mesrop Mutafyan, and Aram Atesyan has served as Patriarchal Vicar ever since.

A government delegation, led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, will be paying a working visit to the Republic of Belarus on October 27-28.

On October 27, the Prime Minister will attend a regular meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Minsk. On October 28, Karen Karapetyan will participate in the session of the Council of CIS Heads of Government.