Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARARAT-73: 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF YEREVAN CLUB’S ASCENT IN USSR MARKED IN ARMENIA

Soccer | 10.10.13 | 10:58

Photolure

By Gohar Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Forty years ago today Armenians celebrated their first major soccer
success in the USSR as Yerevan’s Ararat team beat rivals from Ukraine
in a dramatic Cup final in Moscow.

The match against Dynamo Kiev played in the Luzhniki Stadium on
October 10, 1973, ended 2-1 to Ararat that later that month also won
the championship trophy becoming a “double” winning team.

Enlarge Photo

Eyewitnesses of the event say that the victory was followed by
unprecedented celebration as Armenians played ethnic folk instruments,
sang and danced kochari at the stadium and beyond.

Young or old, everyone was aware of the course of the game, the score,
the names of the players participating in the match that didn’t bode
well for Armenians in the beginning.

Ararat were a goal down when Levon Ishtoyan scored an equalizer in
the dying seconds of the second half, taking the match into overtime
during which he scored the winner becoming an all-time legend in
Armenian soccer.

Rafik Petrosyan, a 63-year-old member of the National Assembly who
taught at the university in 1973, remembers that he was in the Russian
resort city of Sochi on business on that glorious day.

“Along with other Armenians there I watched the game in my hotel room.

Our joy was infinite when we watched Ararat win the Cup,” he says. “I
was a faithful Ararat fan, it was a great pride that uplifted our
spirits and made Armenians known all over the Soviet Union and
the world.”

Petrosyan says loudly rooting for your favorite team was frowned
upon during Soviet times, but nothing could stop Armenian fans from
expressing their emotions during the matches of their favorite team.

Fan slogans are common nowadays but back then they were a new thing in
Soviet Armenian reality. It was in the 1970s when Armenian fans first
began to chant “A-ra-rat”, “A-ra-rat H’up T’ur”, “Ha-yer”, etc. during
Ararat games, slogans that have survived, with some modifications,
till our own days and are heard during national team matches.

Meanwhile, in the times of taboos in the Soviet Union, a soccer game
was a real oasis of freedom for many.

“We took a little vodka with ourselves and had a shot every time
our guys scored a goal. We cried and shouted, enjoying ourselves
immensely,” says Petrosyan.

Soccer in Armenia in the 70’s reminded of a special protocol. On match
days huge queues formed at box offices, but most people as loyal fans
had season tickets.

Coming to the stadium even ten minutes before the start of the game was
considered being late, as people usually came well before the kickoff
in order to have time to discuss the lineups, the match officials,
make predictions for the game, etc..

Fifty-six-year-old lawmaker Aram Manukyan remembers that when they
watched Ararat games on TV back then they preferred gathering in large
groups, including friends, families, to root for the favorite team.

“Soccer was a national spirit. I remember two episodes when sports
provided that – first when Tigran Petrosyan became the world champion
in chess and then when Ararat scored victories in 1973. We had
only the feeling of pride, dignity, and soccer was the topic of all
conversations,” says Manukyan.

It was the large following that Ararat began to have that made the
republic’s authorities decided to build the large stadium in the
Hrazdan gorge. The arena could seat up to 73,000 spectators and only
during the 1973 season it was visited by more than 853,000 soccer fans.

Sports commentator Slava Sargsyan, who was 25 in 1973, had a chance
to be a commentator at Ararat games back then. He says the Yerevan
team played soccer that couldn’t but be admired.

“The entire nation was busy with soccer then. Ararat demonstrated high
qualities, great team play, great techniques and tactics. Individually
all were great players, but they were also great as a team,” remembers
the commentator.

Less then three weeks after beating Kiev in the Cup final,
on October 29, Ararat beat Leningrad’s Zenit 3-2 at Hrazdan to
become the champions of the USSR in the golden year for Armenian
soccer. That success opened the way for the Yerevan team to perform at
the international arena and two years later, in 1975, in a memorable
match in Yerevan Ararat beat Bayern Munich 1-0. The German team then
had many world champions playing, including one of the best defenders
of all times Franz Beckenbauer.

As years passed Ararat somewhat lost its winning ways to turn into a
mediocre side in the USSR championships in the 1980s playing mostly
to avoid relegation, but the winning spirit of the 70’s remained in
Armenians and occasionally wakes up during national team games today.

Writer, film critic, Honored Art Worker of Armenia, Professor David
Muradyan, who chairs the Armenian National Film Academy, thinks that
it was during the 1970s that the spirited play by Ararat prepared
Armenians for the national-liberation movement in 1988.

“It was that same generation that held their fists up celebrating
Ararat victories in the stadium that stood in Opera Square years
later… and then managed to resist and prove victorious in the
Karabakh war,” says Muradyan.

For Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan Ararat also symbolized the
national-liberation struggle.

In 1973, Hayrikyan had just been released from prison after serving
a four-year term for his political views. The 64-year-old politician
says that upon returning to Armenia he had an opportunity to watch
Ararat play.

“That was the year of the awakening of our national-liberation
struggle. It was at that time that the strategy for independence
through a referendum was adopted. I do see parallels between the
successes of Ararat and the national-liberation struggle,” says
Hayrikyan.

The winning Ararat team included: coach Nikita Simonyan, goalkeeper
Alyosha Abrahamyan, defenders Alexander Kovalenko, Norayr Mesropyan,
Armen Sargsyan, Sanasar Gevorgyan, Suren Martirosyan, Arkady
Harutyunyan, midfielders Arkady Andreasyan, Sergey Bondarenko,
Hovhannes Zanazanyan, Sergey Poghosyan, forwards Eduard Markarov,
Levon Ishtoyan, Nikolay Ghazaryan, Nazar Petrosyan.

ARA ABRAHAMYAN ABOUT ZARUHI POSTANJYAN: A PERSON MUST NOT BE SO NARROW-MINDED

by Marianna Lazarian
Thursday, October 10, 13:52

A person must not be so narrow-minded. Do you really think that Armenia
has no other problems? President of the Union of Armenians of Russia
and the World Armenian Congress Ara Abrahamyan in a press conference,
Thursday, commenting on oppositionist MP Zaruhi Postanjyan’s question
addressed to Serzh Sargsyan at PACE.

To recall, Postanjyan asked the president how he was going to pay the
70 million EUR he allegedly lost in a casino. “Under no circumstances
should one dishonor the country’s president on the international
arena. If there are problems, settle them inside the country, and
not tell the world about those problems,” he said.

Postanjyan has been harshly criticized for her question also by local
political forces. Nevertheless, she enlisted the support of some
political forces, public organizations and citizens, who welcomed
her at the airport as “a national hero.”

POLISH ENVOY: EU SEEKING FOR NEW COOPERATION PLATFORM WITH ARMENIA

October 10, 2013 – 19:30 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – EU is seeking for a new platform of cooperation with
Armenia in the light of the country’s decision to join the Russia-led
Customs Union, a Polish envoy said.

As ZdzisÅ~Baw RaczyÅ~Dski told a news conference, Armenia remains
the EU partner in the Eastern Partnership program framework. However,
he noted, in view of Armenia’s decision, the association with the EU
in the manner planed became impossible, with EU searching for a new
cooperation platform.

Dwelling on the oncoming Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius,
the ambassador noted that Armenia is likely to join the memorandum
to be issued based on the summit results. The envoy, however, ruled
out the initialing of the association agreement without the deep and
comprehensive free trade agreement, Armenia Today said.

FUGITIVE SUSPECT IN DINK MURDER IS INNOCENT, SAYS LAWYER

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 11 2013

ISTANBUL – Hurriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioglu

The lawyer of a fugitive suspect in Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrank
Dink’s murder case has revealed that his missing client, Erhan Tuncel,
is in Turkey working on his defense also defending that Tuncel is
innocent, shown as key suspect by media

The lawyer of a key suspect in Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrank
Dink’s murder has revealed that his missing client, Erhan Tuncel,
is in Turkey working on his defense and that it was the latter’s
decision whether or not to surrender.

Erdogan Soruklu, the lawyer of Tuncel, for whom an arrest warrant was
issued after he was ordered to stand in a retrial, told the Hurriyet
Daily News on Oct. 8 that his client was innocent and was working on
his defense somewhere in an unknown location in Turkey.

“[Tuncel] is in Turkey working on his defense; he will go more into
details in his defense. He calls me [on the phone]; I cannot call him,
as I do not know where he is. It is his decision whether or not to
surrender,” said Soruklu.

Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was
shot dead in broad daylight in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

Soruklu said they did not expect Tuncel to receive a long-term sentence
but if that was the case, they would appeal to the European Court
of Human Rights (ECHR), as his client’s rights that derived from the
European Convention of Human Rights were being violated.

“The ECHR is not going to judge Tuncel; it will evaluate whether his
rights have been breached. The ECHR had previously punished Turkey
for Turkish authorities’ insufficient acts to protect Dink’s right to
life. Therefore, this decision also vindicates Tuncel,” said Soruklu.

Tuncel, the suspected instigator of the murder, was an informant in
the Black Sea province of Trabzon before the murder of Dink.

Soruklu also said Tuncel was not a stooge in Dink’s murder. “Erhan
is not a person that was used by others. He was a university student
in Trabzon, who was delivering intelligence about illegal groups. He
was brought to this position in 2004 and was discharged from it one
month before the Dink murder but it was not communicated to him. It
is still a mystery why he was discharged from this post,” said Soruklu.

Soruklu said he did not believe that Tuncel was the “key person”
in the trial and thus his life was not in danger.

“Even though some media outlets and the public opinion are trying to
depict Erhan [as the key person], he is not the black box in the case.

The public opinion that has been created against Tuncel does not rest
on concrete evidence. Punishing Erhan will not make a difference in
shedding light on the case. If all the evidence had pointed Tuncel,
he would not have been acquitted. Tuncel is being set up as the ‘Big
Brother’ but he is the person who reported the murder [to authorities
before it took place],” said Soruklu.

Commenting on the accusations of the convicted Yasin Hayal, Soruklu
said there was an attempt to cast his client as an instigator. “There
is someone who looks like Osman Hayal [the brother of Yasin Hayal] at
the crime scene. Yasin Hayal accused Tuncel of being the instigator of
the murder just to prevent the truths from coming out,” said Soruklu.

Yasin Hayal was convicted of being the instigator of the assassination
and the “leader of a terrorist organization.” Hayal is also among
the suspects who are being retried as part of the murder case.

Stating that he was not hopeful about the trial process, Soruklu
said that though the court had good intentions, some of the public
institutions had not provided the necessary support for the case to
proceed. Soruklu said he felt for the Dink family and their loss and
that he was not against the Dink family’s struggle but was merely
defending his client’s rights.

“My position is not against the Dink family; I share the same
intentions as them. I respect their sorrow. I wish with all my heart
that the truth will be revealed, but I defend the rights of Erhan
Tuncel as a lawyer and believe that he is innocent,” Soruklu said.

Former governor: I wasn’t informed

Former Trabzon Governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir said Hrant Dink would
not have been murdered if he had been informed. “If I was informed
by the police or gendarmerie, I would warn Istanbul Governor Muammer
Guler that a there was a plot against Hrant Dink and this [attacker]
person lives in Istanbul; take the necessary measures,” he told local
daily Karadeniz.

October/10/2013

AIR ARMENIA ADDS FIRST B737-500 AHEAD OF SCHEDULED SERVICES LAUNCH

Ch-Aviation, Switzerland
Oct 10 2013

10OCT2013

Air Armenia (QN, Yerevan) has taken delivery of a first ex-Orenair
(R2, Orenburg) B737-500 (msn 26297) to be registered EK-73797 in
Armenia shortly. It plans to use the leased 131 seat aircraft to
launch scheduled services from Yerevan to several destinations in
Russia from October 27. Air Armenia has been in business since 2003
but has so far mainly concentrated on cargo services with its fleet
of An-12s and Il-76s.

VISTING AUTHOR SPEAKS ON GENOCIDE

The Concordian: Concord College
October 9, 2013 Wednesday

by Nina Due

A class of 20 students gathered at the King Intercultural center Oct.

1 to have a discussion about genocide with the author of “Nowhere:
A Story of Exile.”

“People don’t think these things happen now, but they do because
the world is paying attention to something else,” said author Anna
Astvatsaturian Turcotte.

Turcotte was a clerk at the International Criminal Court, which is
involved in prosecuting individuals for genocide. She is the president
of the Maine chapter of the Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief.

“It was nice to get questions answered by the author. It would have
been nice to have another discussion with her, though,” said Freshman
Ariel Johnson. She is part of Amy Watkin’s inquiry seminar, Beyond
Genocide: Help/Hope.

Watkin said she decided to teach this book because it pertains to
the class, and she knew Turcotte would be visiting other schools in
the area.

“I took the class because when I was looking through the list, I
thought that it was something I could really utilize. It’s interesting
and relevant to the world,” said Freshman Marah Evans. “It’s relevant
all the time because it’s always happening.”

The class covers multiple genocides, including the Holocaust, Armenian
genocide and Rwandan genocide.

“The Holocaust has been the one thing that has fascinated me most
through history because I can’t believe it happened,” Johnson said.

Turcotte wrote her book at the age of fourteen, basing it off her
diaries and thoughts as she looked back at how her family and, more
importantly, how she had been affected by the genocide that happened
years before she was born.

“Refugees don’t write about this; they are too traumatized. Many have
said ‘thank you for speaking for us’ after the book was released,”
Turcotte said.

Turcotte’s high school teacher and college professors helped her get
the book published because she did not think she would be successful
in the process.

“It’s my diary, it seemed so mundane to me,” Turcotte said.

When Turcotte became a refugee and moved with her parents to the United
States, she and her family were so thankful they were safe, they did
not care where they ended up. Turcotte said it took a long time to find
people who understood and that the whole experience was traumatizing.

“As a refugee, you always feel out of place,” Turcotte explained.

Even though it ended many years ago, the Armenian genocide is still
not recognized as a genocide by the Turkish government.

“The only people talking about the Armenian genocide are the
Armenians,” Turcotte said.

According to Watkin, some governments refuse to label genocide as
such. This can further the tendency of humans to be dismissive of
the issue.

“Genocide affects everyone,” Watkin said. “It’s so easy to dismiss
as something that happens far away, long ago, happens amongst people
so far from here. We forget that we are certainly not only vulnerable
in some ways, but complicit.”

Nina Due Nina Due, 2015, is a News Writer for The Concordian. Born
in St.

Cloud, Minnesota, she has declared an English Writing major with a
Political Science minor.

MP FROM RPA: DURING HIS THIRD TERM OF PRESIDENCY IHAM ALIYEV SHOULD PREPARE HIS PEOPLE FOR PEACE

by Ashot Safaryan

ARMINFO
Thursday, October 10, 18:26

Baku’s rhetoric in the Karabakh peace process is unlikely to change
after Ilham Aliyev’s re-election as President of Azerbaijan, Artak
Zakaryan, MP from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Head
of the Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Relations, told ArmInfo.

Zakaryan thinks that at the current stage of negotiations Azerbaijan
is evidently unable to promote its interests to the full extent and
to dictate its own rules, because the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs cope
with the task of observing the rules and conditions of the process
well enough.

He added that during the election campaign the incumbent power tried
to use the anti-Armenian rhetoric for propaganda purposes. But now
that Aliyev as been re-elected president, he could as well prepare
his own people for peace. “One should take into account that the
destabilization of the situation in the region will prove costly for
the Aliyev regime. His society will not forgive a new war. Military
settlement of the problem will undermine the positions of the Aliyev
regime. The balance of forces in the region gives Azerbaijan no
guarantees for military victory”, he said.

ARMENIA HAS BEEN AND REMAINS IMPORTANT PARTNER FOR EU – POLAND’S AMBASSADOR

October 10, 2013 | 15:25

YEREVAN. – Armenia has been and remains an important partner for EU,
Poland’s Ambassador ZdzisÅ~Baw RaczyÅ~Dski said.

The diplomat noted that initialing of the Association Agreement at
this stage is impossible given the decision to join Customs Union.

Therefore, the sides should seek other platforms for cooperation.

Ambassador RaczyÅ~Dski believes the decision on Customs Union has
been economically calculated beforehand.

“I do not know what benefits Armenia will get from joining Customs
Union, but I believe tat the decision was balanced and calculated,”
he emphasized.

According to assessment of Polish experts, the Association Agreement
would have brought Armenia annual income of â~B¬150 million, he said.

Ambassador said it is better not to jump to a conclusion and wait
until Armenia joins the Customs Union. According to him, last year
GDP growth was 7%. If the next year’s growth reaches 9.5%, this would
mean that joining Customs Union is profitable.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

AZERBAIJAN’S OIL MONEY IS FOR PR NOW

17:35, 10 October, 2013

Within the recent decades Armenian-American community in the United
States has achieved considerable success in gaining political and
material support from the Congress. Meanwhile In spite of oil money and
support of Turkey and Jewish community, Azerbaijan is still losing “PR
war” with Armenia in the United States. Alongside with various cultural
events organizing by different Azerbaijani organizations in the USA,
Azeri policy-makers also are trying to use professional American
PR companies in order to overcoming Armenian lobby and improving
Azerbaijan’s image within the American public and the USA government.

So far we can see that this intention is going beyond the theory
and assuming more practical sense year by year. Azerbaijan pays more
attention to the building of the relations with the USA government
and media thus exerting all possible effort to push Azeri interests
in the USA.

Since 2010 Azerbaijan signed a contract with one of the American law
firms Patton Boggs which provides legal services in every major facet
of government advocacy. The services of the company include counseling
and assisting of Azerbaijan with regard to US-Azerbaijan bilateral
relations. For this Azerbaijani government pays 35.000$ per month.

Another American lobbying firm The Livingston Group recognized as
one of the most respected bipartisan government relations firms
in Washington, received approximately 672.000$ in 2007-2008 for
organizing political consultations with the members of the US
Congress from Azerbaijani MFA through Embassy of Azerbaijan in the
USA and also for carrying out various actions on the actions on the
subject of building American-Azerbaijan relations, freedom of speech
in Azerbaijan and assistance in organizing visits of Azerbaijani MFA
representatives in the USA.

Jefferson Waterman International which has represented governments,
political interests, and leading international corporations, helping
them achieve objectives in the U.S. and worldwide for 15 years,
received from the International Bank of Azerbaijan about 108.100$
for the operations on lobbying the legislation in the interest of
the pledge. The same company received 26.000$ from the Azerbaijani
President for the similar operations in working out the strategy on
the relations with the press.

Currently Azerbaijan America Alliance assumes the main lobbying and
PR role in the United States. According to Center for Responsive
Politics total lobbying expenditures for 2012 were $2,920,000, and
the Alliance signed $2,4 million yearlong contract with the lobby
firm Fabian&Co. to conduct outreach in the United States.

Azerbaijan America Alliance was founded in 2010 by Anar Mammadov, a son
of the Azerbaijan’s corrupt transport minister Ziya Mammadov. Before
founding Azerbaijan America Alliance, Anar Mammadov was known for
suing a newspaper that published a story about him paying $1 million
dollars at a restaurant to grill a live bear from the venue’s small
zoo. His father, Ziya Mammadov, is mentioned in Wikileaks cables and
OCCRP reports as one of the top corrupt Azeri oligarchs. According to
FARA records, Azerbaijan America Alliance ‘s funding comes mainly from
“ZQAN Holding” and “Bank of Azerbaijan” — entities that form Mammadov
family’s shadowy business empire.

One of the latest great PR and lobbing event organizing by the
Azerbaijan America Alliance in Washington, D.C was a gala dinner.

Nearly 700 were invited guests from the Obama Administration, Capitol
Hill, the Diplomatic Corps and the think tank and academic communities.

Rep. Dan Burton, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
on Europe and Eurasia, Senator Saxby Chambliss, Senator Richard Burr
and House Speaker John Boehner among the guests.

Along with the big projects Azerbaijani diplomatic missions to the
United States themselves initiating various PR activities with the
assistance of American communication and law firms to carry out media
campaigns, building media contacts organizing events, etc. For example,
Melwood Global Company received from the Embassy of Azerbaijan an
unspecified sum for carrying out media-strategy in the interests of
the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Co-Founder of the Company is John Boit,
who has a huge experience of working in Azerbaijan.

In 2000, he became Azerbaijan country director of Internews.

The Azerbaijani General Consulate transferred about 8.900$ to Sitrick
and Company, the staff of which includes former editors and reporters
from such news organizations as The Wall Street Journal, The New York
Times , Bloomberg News,Los Angeles Times, and NBC and CBS Television
news, for the assistance in building contacts with the Los Angeles
media. After one year Sitrick and Company replaced with Toolshed
Group, founded by Jason Katz, former Director of Public Affairs for
the American Jewish Committee.

National Center of Young Researchers

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION INITIATIVE PLANS TO SUBMIT NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT PLAN

October 10, 2013 | 12:52

YEREVAN. – The Pre-Parliament initiative has tasked itself to submit,
before the collapse of this government, a strategic concept plan for
forming and developing a new quality Armenian state.

The said opposition initiative’s coordinator Garegin Chugaszyan stated
the abovementioned during a press conference on Thursday.

In his words, they have decided to launch their public discussions
from the international relations section of their concept plan.

“Armenia needs to orientate and specify its policy. Armenia’s
peculiarity is the [country’s] ethnic and religious homogeneity,
which can bridge numerous conflicting interests.

“Armenia’s traditional background grows against the backdrop of
the innovations in the region. Before that, however, changes need
to happen within ourselves, [and] in terms of state formation,”
Chugaszyan maintained.

In addition, the Pre-Parliament members noted that their strategic
concept plan comprises general provisions.