Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

Sports: An Armenian Teenager’s Small Olympic Triumph

Nahapetian Zhanna
Transitions Online, Czech Rep.
Feb 22 2018

When his skis broke, hopes for the country’s only Alpine skier to compete in Pyeongchang looked dim.

Armenia’s Ashot Karapetyan (pictured) finished 42nd in today’s men’s slalom event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics held in South Korea.

For 18-year-old, merely competing was something of a miracle. Unlike American skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin, who brought 35 pairs of skis, he arrived with just some borrowed skis, and they broke during a training run.

 “I often have problems with equipment,” Karapetyan told News.am, Eurasianet.org reports. “In previous [events] in Turkey and Iran, as well as here in Pyeongchang, I have been using my friend’s skis.”

 Karapetyan, the only Alpine skier in Armenia’s three-person Olympic squad, said new equipment promised by the Armenian Olympic Federation failed to arrive in time for him to begin training. He was not even given a team uniform.

By the time two new pairs of skis and one pair of boots arrived last week, thanks to the national Olympic committee and the Armenian Ski Federation, it was too late to train for the men’s giant slalom event.

He managed to get in enough training to start today’s slalom, and although he finished only one place above last, Karapetyan managed to complete both runs, unlike some 60 other racers.

  • One Yerevan political analyst told Eurasianet Karapetyan’s equipment issues were likely linked to bad feelings over his being chosen to compete ahead of the nephew of the Armenian national head ski coach, Syran Harutyunyan. A flood of social media complaints about Karapetyan’s plight probably goaded the authorities into seeing that he got new skis, analyst Styopa Safaryan said.
  • Cross-country skiers Mikayel Mikayelyan and Katya Galstyan are also competing for Armenia at the games, which wrap up this weekend.

Sports: Henrikh Mkhitaryan describes Wenger as ‘friendlier’ than Mourinho

Nahapetian Zhanna
PanArmenian, Armenia
Feb 10 2018
– 15:41 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Henrikh Mkhitaryan has hinted he is already benefiting from Arsene Wenger‘s more compassionate style of man management, Mirror says.

The Armenia international completed his move to Arsenal from Manchester United last month in a swap deal which saw Alexis Sanchez move in the opposite direction.

Mkhitaryan produced only flashes of his best form during a turbulent 18-month spell at Old Trafford but already appears to have acclimatised to his new surroundings and the requirements of his new manager.

The 29-year-old provided three assists on his full debut during last week’s crushing 5-1 win over Everton at the Emirates and summed up the difference between his two most recent bosses by contrasting their approach to man management.

“Mourinho required a lot from the players,” Mkhitaryan told SFR Sport on Friday.

“A lot, he was very hard.

“Arsene Wenger is friendlier, he understands, can think about players’ situations, is calmer. That’s the difference.”

“I think I left an impression in Manchester, although I had difficulties,” he added.

“We won three trophies in a year and a half, it’s not every club that does that.

“We won the Europa League final, I scored a goal. If people say that I have not had enough success it is their opinion, but I can say that I had a lot of success at the club.’

Benefits of Armenian cuisine for your health: RTL France

Nahapetian Zhanna
Pan Armenian, Armenia
Jan 29 2018
– 13:29 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – After stumbling upon ‘Kitchen of Armenia’ – a book by Richard Zarzavatdjian which he found great – Dr. Frédéric Saldmann became interested in Armenian family recipes and dishes that could be extremely good for your health, the French radio network RTL reports.

Saldmann is a French cardiologist and physician of preventive medicine. Through his consulting firm Sprim, he has advised The Coca-Cola Company, Danone and Nestlé on diet and gluten-free products.

“The big problem we face in food is that we tend to eat the same thing all the time,” Saldmann explained.

“In fact, to stay healthy you must start eating vegetables, and the more you diversify, the more you lower the risk of ingesting too much pesticides.

“In this book about the Armenian cuisine which contains simple recipes, we understand that vegetables can turn into real dishes.

“I think we have to rediscover these family recipes because they have the key to a very good health.”

Stepan Safaryan: ‘With its business step, Russia will lead to the deterioration of Armenian-Russian relations’

Nahapetian Zhanna
Aravot, Armenia
Jan 24 2018
Stepan Safaryan: ‘With its business step, Russia will lead to the deterioration of Armenian-Russian relations’
by Nelli Grigoryan
[Armenian News note: the below is translated from the Russian edition of Aravot]

The recent meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers [Edvard Nalbandyan and Elmar Mammadyarov respectively] in Krakow [on 18 January] and the simultaneous supply of yet another consignment of Russian weapons to Azerbaijan are linked and, as Stepan Safaryan, the head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), said the latter is a threat to Armenia’s security, he said at yesterday’s [23 January] discussions of “Security dynamic in Armenia’s neighbourhood” held in AIISA.

A statement on reinforcing security mechanisms was made after the meeting of the foreign ministers. Yerevan and Artsakh [Azerbaijan’s breakaway Karabakh] said that they wanted international security guarantees to be ensured. For their part, co-chairmen [of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, USA, France – mediating in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict] spoke about the implementation of the Vienna agreements, which was said to be a direct step on the path to building trust.

However, Stepan Safaryan’s description of the events is as follows: “Russia is unable to publicly speak against the implementation of the Vienna agreements, which has been confirmed on a lot of occasions over the past years, so it is trying to prevent the building of trust between the sides with methods characteristic of it. I think that the Kremlin, including [Vice] Prime Minister [Dmitry] Rogozin, who paid an unexpected visit to Baku a few weeks ago with the agenda that was not very public, realised full well that Azerbaijan could not fail to take this as a message and to comprehend the implications behind the Russian arms supplies to Azerbaijan”. The political analyst thinks that this is yet another proof of the fact that Russia is not interested in building trust between the sides.

The speaker said that in this context, the meeting in Krakow will make no essential changes in the implementation of previous agreements and resumption of the negotiating process, particularly as Armenia’s strategic partner [Russia] continues to send such messages.

He is sure that such behaviour of the Russian Federation will have a certain impact on the public opinion in Armenia, even if Yerevan keeps silent. “With its business step, Russia will lead to the deterioration of Armenian-Russian relations,” he stressed.

Book Review: Kirk Kerkorian, ‘The Gambler’

Nahapetian Zhanna
Wall Street Journal
Jan 23 2018

By

Marc Levinson

Jan. 22, 2018 7:08 p.m. ET

       

The long subtitle of “The Gambler” includes the claim that Kirk Kerkorian was “The Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History.” It is certainly true that the California billionaire, who died in 2015 at the age of 98, had a hand in a lot of major deals over his long and busy career, and William C. Rempel’s breezy biography offers an entertaining look at Kerkorian’s outsize life, but the question of his historical stature is still open to debate.

Mr. Rempel has come up with information that the secretive Kerkorian would no doubt have preferred to keep under wraps, and the investigative work couldn’t have been easy. Kerkorian apparently left no public papers, and his main lawyer bluntly told the author, “No one is going to help you.” Mr. Rempel’s research yields a portrait of a guy who took big risks that made him very rich but who had an unhappy personal life, including an on-again, off-again relationship with a professional tennis player who contrived a plot to persuade him that, at age 81, he had fathered her child. In his prime, he was accused of consorting with the mobsters who financed casinos when banks would not; in his extended old age, he was desperate for companionship and vulnerable to people who wanted his money. You might have liked to have Kerkorian’s wealth, but most reasonably balanced human beings wouldn’t have liked to be him.

The son of illiterate Armenian immigrants whose business ventures ended badly, Kerkorian grew up in California and dropped out of school in eighth grade. After stints in the Civilian Conservation Corps, the used-car business and the boxing ring, in 1940 he talked his way into flight school at the Happy Bottom Ranch and Riding Club, an establishment in the Mojave Desert run by a colorful Hollywood stunt pilot named Florence Barnes, and paid his tuition by milking cows and slopping hogs. To improve his career prospects, he obtained a bogus official letter stating that he was the graduate of a Los Angeles high school. The letter was unneeded: Amid wartime pilot shortages, the military was desperate for instructors with cockpit experience, and he was soon training pilots for the Army Air Force. Ferrying planes across the North Atlantic seemed more challenging and paid better, so he spent the balance of the war flying Mosquito fighter-bombers from Canada to Scotland.

Unemployed at war’s end, Kerkorian opened a flight school in a Los Angeles suburb, then bought a five-seat Cessna and launched a charter service. That business was soon dealt off to finance a batch of used airplanes, which in turn were sold to acquire a small charter airline. He turned his modest Los Angeles Air Service into the ambitiously named Trans International Airlines, sold it, repurchased it, sold it again. Deal making became a habit, or perhaps an addiction.

Much of Kerkorian’s charter business had involved flying gamblers between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Himself an avid gambler, he took aim at Sin City. His first small investment lost money. By 1968, he owned the Flamingo and Bonanza hotels, the land beneath Caesars Palace, and a second mortgage on the new Circus Circus. He began construction of the immense International Hotel and Casino without the cash to finish the job; that problem was solved by taking International Leisure Corp. public—and requiring investors to buy a $1,000 bond for every 20 shares of stock. At the same time, an unsolicited tender offer won him 28% of Western Airlines, the better to transport gamblers to the desert.

Anyone could see that Las Vegas was burgeoning, but Kerkorian was among the few who could grasp the possibilities beyond the casino floor. “I thought it was going to become an adult Disneyland,” Mr. Rempel quotes him saying. When he paid Barbra Streisand more than $100,000 a week to open the International in 1969 and then signed Elvis Presley to a five-year contract, he transformed the town.

In 1969, with no advance notice, Kerkorian made a tender offer for MGM, the venerable movie studio. He had little interest in the risky and unpredictable business of making movies. “What Kirk saw in a tired old MGM with its run of box office losers was something beyond the view of most investors,” Mr. Rempel writes. “He saw hidden value.” Specifically, he saw gold in MGM’s rights to a vast library of old films and to the esteemed corporate name. He redefined MGM as a leisure company and attached its name to the biggest hotel in Vegas, the MGM Grand, which would open in 1973.

This was only the beginning. Over the ensuing decades, Kerkorian sold International Leisure to Hilton, made a run at Columbia Pictures, bought United Artists, sold MGM’s film library to Ted Turner, made passes at Chrysler (very profitably), Ford (at a loss), and General Motors, and acquired still more properties in Las Vegas. At one point, according to Mr. Rempel, he owned nearly half the hotel rooms and casino floor space on the Strip. He often skated close to the edge, urgently restructuring his holdings to avoid default on his enormous debts.

Mr. Rempel paints a picture of a man who lived to do deals. Many interesting characters, from Bugsy Siegel to Lee Iacocca, crossed his path, and his philanthropy, undertaken late in life and mostly in secret, was substantial, featuring donations to Armenian causes and to UCLA. It adds up to an interesting portrait of a billionaire so shy that he rarely spoke in public, so secretive that when he applied for a credit card in 1996, at age 79, he was rejected for lack of a personal credit history.

But that bold subtitle notwithstanding, Mr. Rempel doesn’t have much to say about Kerkorian’s legacy. His wheeling and dealing appears to have left few traces. Three years after his death, Kirk Kerkorian is all but forgotten. Perhaps the problem is that making deals isn’t quite the same thing as making history.

Mr. Levinson’s books include “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger.”

210th Street in Bayside, NYC, to Be Symbolically Co-Named Armenia Way

Nahapetian Zhanna
The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
Jan 14 2018


By Fr. Abraham Malkhasyan

Pastor, Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs, Bayside, NY

BAYSIDE, N. Y. — Three years ago, in January 2015, as the Holy Martyrs Genocide Centennial Committee began plans for their year of celebratory events, the idea to symbolically co-name 210th Street from Horace Harding Expressway to 58th Avenue as “Armenia Way,” was born. With the help of Garo Sekdorian, former member of Community Board 11 (CB 11) that serves Bayside and the surrounding communities, Dr. Lynn Cetin (Chair of the Centennial Committee) and I embarked on a mission to make this dream a reality. While Dr. Cetin drafted a letter to the Community Board describing the connection of Armenians to Bayside, I personally went door-to-door to all the neighbors on 210th Street to secure their support of symbolically renaming the street. It was important that they understood that the co-naming would not change their actual address, but just be a symbolic gesture to our community. Navigating the world of community politics was new to me and no easy task. With the tremendous help of Garo Sekdorian, I sent letters to community leaders and politicians seeking support for this project. Despite our efforts and the many connections I made with many prominent community members, the project fizzled and the dream of seeing “Armenia Way” on 210th Street dwindled over the next two years.

Last fall, with a new political climate in the community, I revitalized the street co-naming project and resubmitted an updated letter to Community Board 11. With the support of State Senator Tony Avella and City Council Member Barry Grodenchik, the project regained new life. On December 11, 2017, after almost three years of waiting, I was invited to the Transportation Committee board meeting of CB 11 to present the co-naming project. Dr. Lynn Cetin and I attended the meeting and were excited to hear the committee unanimously vote in approval of the co-naming of 210th Street. Now, one more step was needed – the approval of the entire community board. On January 8, 2018, Dr. Lynn Cetin, Bruce Ashbahian (Holy Martyrs’ 60th Anniversary Co-Chairs) and I attended the CB 11 meeting in Bayside. In my public remarks I thanked the local community for their support of Holy Martyrs and the Armenian community for the past six decades. This co-naming is our way of remembering those who established our community years ago and thanking them. Dr. Cetin told the attendees that Holy Martyrs’ annual Street Festival is a way our community has given back to our neighborhood. “Our community has discussed many times about relocating our church, but we have always said that we love Queens and are grateful to the community here. We hope Queens loves us back!” said Dr. Cetin. Community Board Chair Christine Haider told her own story about her connection to Holy Martyrs. A non-Armenian living in the area, Holy Martyrs was the only available kindergarten for her son 49 years ago. She spoke highly of the school and the education her son received. Eileen Miller, another Community Board member, stated that she has lived down the block from Holy Martyrs for 12 years and complimented our church community for being welcoming to the neighbors of all religious backgrounds.

After three years of waiting and some setbacks, on the evening of January 8 our perseverance prevailed as Community Board 11 voted unanimously to co-name 210th Street from Horace Harding Expressway to 58th Avenue as “Armenia Way.”After the vote, which brought applause and congratulations from all, we immediately texted Garo Sekdorian, who now lives in Florida. “What a beautiful gift to Holy Martyrs on its 60th anniversary!” wrote Garo Sekdorian upon receiving the exciting news.

I am humbled and grateful to all who supported this project from day one. I am especially thankful to our wonderful neighbors on 210th Street and the members of CB 11. I am excited to see “Armenia Way” on the corner of 210th Street and will notify all of you about the official street sign unveiling once I am made aware of the details. Nothing is impossible! We must always believe!



Remembering Armenak Alajajian – Armenia’s Basketball Legend (photos)

Nahapetian Zhanna
| 14:35 | January 8 2018
Categories
Armenia
People
Persons
Sport
World

Famous Armenian basketball player Armenak Alajajian (Armenak Alachachan) passed away at the age of 87 in Toronto, Canada, on December 4th, 2017.

Armenak Alajajian’s achievements and support to the Armenian world are countless – starting from his achievements as one of the most famous Soviet athletes in the 1960s and ending up with his continued support to the Armenian community of Canada as AGBU’s basketball team player and coach. Armenak’s life was not an easy one. His life went through struggles, but he always did his best to go the extra mile to perfection and didn’t forget to give back to his community.

Early Life and Repatriation to Armenia

Armenak Alajajian was born in Alexandria, Egypt on December 25, 1930 and was part of the Armenian Diaspora caused by the 1915 Genocide. His mother had been an orphan who had barely escaped the Ottoman Empire’s deportations and mass killings of Armenians. Young Armenak attended Poghosian High School in Egypt and graduated in 1947. In 1948, there was a patriotic wave of Diaspora Armenians going to repopulate Soviet Armenia, which was part of the USSR at the time. After his move to Armenia in 1948, Armenak was accepted into the Yerevan Institute of Physical Education.

Despite being short by basketball standards, Alajajian began to excel in the sport. He first played with Yerevan SKIF, then the Armenian republic team and later with Alma-Ata Burevestnik in the soviet republic of Kazakhstan. He would become a basketball star not by natural size and talent, but made himself one by hard work and careful analytic study of the game. He was loved by his fans and coaches alike.

The Basketball Legend

Following success in Kazakhstan, Alajajian was invited in 1959 to CSKA-Central Sport Club of the Soviet Army in Moscow. From that time on, Armenak was no longer considered an above average basketball player, but an accomplished professional. He was one of the best shooters in Soviet basketball. In 1960, shortly after he joined the CSKA Central Sport Club, his team set a record which was unmatched at the time: 11 games – 11 victories!

It is worth mentioning that from 1953 to 1960, the Red Army team had never been champions of the Soviet Union. There were other strong teams, such as the ones from the then soviet republics of Latvia, Estonia and Georgia, and thus, it was very hard to achieve first place. Starting from the very first year that Armenak joined the team and during the subsequent eight years, his teams were repeatedly champions of the Soviet Union.

Alajajian’s fans loved his style, particularly the tricks he performed. These made him stand out as an exceptionally exciting player on the court. One remarkable story was his play against the American team, as told in Anatoly Pinchuk’s book “I Shall Limit Myself with Basketball” (Moscow, 1991). It cites excerpts from Armenak Alajajian’s book “Not Only About Basketball.” In 1964, during a game against the American basketball team playing in Moscow, he did one of his tricks for which he was famous. As he was moving forward, he finished dribbling, and he had to choose either to pass or dash to the basket.

Instead, Alajajian firmly shot the ball off the backboard in such a way that the basketball immediately rebounded to him. He thereupon immediately passed the ball to a team member who had been deliberately stationed close to the basket – swish, two-points! As a professional who had mastered the extraordinary trick, Armenak had calculated that all five American opponents would instinctively look at the ball and backboard. In that brief instant, they would lose sight of his whereabouts. But both Armenak and his teammate knew the value of a fraction of a second in such a setting and the manoeuvre worked.

Upon seeing the unorthodox and innovative play, the USA national team coach John McLendon jumped up from his bench and gave Alajajian a long, standing applause. Armenak had earned his distinguished opponents’ respect. As each of the American players were substituted onto the court, Alajajian was the first and foremost player from the Soviet team that they would approach and generously acknowledge. Armenak Alajajian played wearing sweater number six on both the CSKA and USSR national team. The ovations that number six received had no equal at the time.

All this success did not come by itself. It was a result of long, hard work and much perseverance. His coaches greatly admired him. During his long career, none of his coaches would ask him to do more than he was already doing. The reason for that was the simple fact that there was no need to tell him that “he had to work more and to try harder”, because he was already doing more and more. Every time he could, he sought to do more in a long series of steps towards perfection. During his entire life in a country where men smoking was the norm, Armenak did not try one single cigarette, even for curiosity. In a country where heavy drinking was too common, he didn’t consume any alcohol either. Only once did he try a few sips of cognac at a celebration party. As he took several sips from the shot glass, he called out with laughter: “I am drunk, I am drunk!” The next morning, he approached his friends with genuine surprise and posed the serious question: “How can you even drink this by the bottle?”

As he continued his career with the Soviet national team, he set new records with his teammates. Most notable, as the pivotal point guard, he led the team to the Olympic Silver medal in Tokyo in 1964 with an 8-1 record, coming second only to the American team.

Immigration and Life in Canada

While Armenak was breaking new records in his basketball career, grave problems began to emerge and create significant obstacles in his life. At that time, the KGB secret police monitored and controlled much of Soviet society. Even famous people fell under its powerful influence. Suddenly, Armenak was not allowed to play as much; he was not even allowed to travel to play in Europe. The pretext offered was that he had an older sister living in Canada and that he might defect. In one later interview, Armenak recalled that the KGB had attempted to recruit him, but he bravely and firmly refused. He was not interested in power politics or international intrigue. His passion was sports. He observed: “Finally, in 1963 I was able to go to Madrid for the European Cup games – Marshall Grechko personally vouched for me, so I would be allowed to go. In 1968, I became the head coach of the Red Army team. In that season, we won the European Cup from the “Real Madrid” team in Barcelona. It was a difficult game, with overtime.

Until then the Spanish team was always proud that they never lost on their home base… but we made them loose”. Continuing he added: “When we returned to Moscow, they started searching – apparently someone told the Ministry of Defense that every player of the (Red Army) team had received $6,000 cash, which was an absolutely false allegation, and that I had something to do with it. They even complained that the team members were not participating in the work of the Komsomol [Youth Branch of the Soviet Communist party]. This made me understand that they were not going to let me work, and I applied to leave for Canada to join my [extended] family.”

Repeated threats and intimidation by the KGB brought Armenak – Soviet Armenia’s basketball legend with 17 gold medals and a Silver Olympic Medal from Tokyo (1964) – to realize that he was no longer safe remaining in the Soviet Union. Accordingly, he and his family decided to immigrate to Canada, where his mother and both sisters lived. Arriving in Canada in 1974, life turned out to be initially quite difficult for the older immigrant in his mid-forties. At the time, the most popular game in Canada was hockey, with very little attention paid to basketball. Armenak had professional friends in the United States, one of them was Larry Brown, who had played for the United States against the Soviet team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. Brown was now a coach in the NBA.

He offered Armenak a job in basketball, but Armenak’s mother was anxious about the prospect of her son leaving for the USA and breaking up the recently reunited extended family. Armenak decided to stay in Canada. His immigrant work challenges started with long hours in a manual labour job moving cars around in a downtown parking lot. Being used to struggle and hard work all his life, Armenak worked swiftly and for long hours, even in innovative and unorthodox ways.

One day, unexpectedly two former fans from the Soviet Union, who were now businessmen, recognized him and offered to tutor him in the gold business in Toronto. After a number of months of apprenticeship learning the gold and jewelry business and with a modest family loan, he opened up “AAA Diamonds LTD”. It proved to be a highly successful manufacturing and retail venture in downtown Toronto that operated from then until now.

Armenak continued his basketball wherever he could. In 1974-1975, he was the coach of Humber College basketball team in Toronto. From 1974 to 1990, Alajajian coached the Armenian General Benevolent Union basketball team in Toronto. He was also a philanthropist to the city’s Armenian Holy Trinity Church, the Armenian General Benevolent Union and numerous other Armenian causes.

Armenak Alajajian’s books, brochures, essays and notes were published in hundreds of thousands copies in the Soviet Union. His words appeared in Russian and Armenian newspapers and on TV and radio programs. Most notable were his two published books in Russian: “Notes of a Basketball Player” (Moscow, Publishing House of Physical Culture and Sport, 125 pages); and “Not Only About Basketball” (Moscow, Molodaia Gvardia, 319 pages; translated into Estonian as well).

Starting in the late 1990s, there were unsuccessful efforts to have him inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Massachusetts, United States. At that time, there was less interest in international basketball stars, let alone from the former Soviet Union. However, in recent years, there has been a renewed recognition of Armenak Alajajian’s pioneering role. The winner’s trophy at a recent pan-Armenian basketball tournament in Yerevan is named after him. Certainly, many local Toronto Armenian basketball players continue to be inspired by his legacy.

Friends and Relatives about Armenak Alajajian 

Distinguished writer and genocide scholar Alan Whitehorn remembers his uncle with pride and recalls hearing exciting comments from his high school football coach Rolly Goldring, who was also a member of the Canadian Olympic basketball team. Whitehorn adds “Among my special memories was speaking with Rolly Goldring in 1964 as he prepared for Canada’s Olympic basketball team. The first game Canada played in Tokyo was against the Soviet team, which included my uncle. Defying the Cold War barriers, these two Olympians exchanged personal and private best wishes. Upon Rolly’s return to Canada, I was grateful for his kind comments and insights. Sadly, they both died in Toronto within weeks of each other.”

Levon Yazejian, a dear family friend and former treasurer of the Toronto AGBU, who spoke at the church funeral service, observed that Armenak brought energy and brilliant strategy to the game. Quoting the player himself: “In basketball the game changes constantly: one moment it is defense, the next is attack! I like the control in directing the game”. Levon also added that “it is not surprising that Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, commented that ‘Armenak blasts like a rocket.’ In an overview of Armenak’s career, Levon Yazejian pointed out that “Armenak, during his Soviet national basketball team years, won 17 gold medals, a silver medal in 1964 at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. …Accordingly, it is not surprising that on January 17th, 2000, the Russian Basketball Federation recognized Armenak Alajajian as one of the top five players of the century. Moreover, in that same year, the Armenian government issued a commemorative stamp honouring Armenak Alajajian as a champion of many basketball games in the former Soviet Union and Europe.”

Levon Yazejian noted that in later years in Canada “Armenak invariably attended and coached every game tournament that the AGBU held all over the world – Canada, North and South America and Europe. Not only did he attend and coach the young athletes, he generously supported financially towards their trips overseas. His generosity had no bounds. At the AGBU Centre, he had the basketball arena floor refurbished and supported many events at the Centre by donating jewelry items for lottery prizes.”

Salpi Der-Ghazarian, Executive Director of the Armenian General Benevolent Union of Toronto, says Armenak Alajajian had a key role in the formation and development of the AGBU in Toronto’s Armenian community. “He was the AGBU’s basketball team coach, and played a vital role in Toronto’s AGBU Alex Manoogian Cultural Centre since its opening in 1981. He was a great mentor to the youth and a vigorous supporter of the AGBU sports program, especially basketball. Other than basketball, Armenak had another passion: Armenia and Armenian culture. Whenever we invited young artists from Armenia, children artists, Armenak was there with his big heart and generosity. He was the Santa that put a huge smile on their faces, and that made him very happy,” said Salpi Der-Ghazarian.

He was a remarkable man who grew up in a difficult world. He defied the odds, as both a basketball player and Diaspora son of a genocide survivor.

Awards in Basketball

1953, 1961, 1963, 1965: Gold Medal for playing on the winning team at the European Championship for the years listed.

1959-1966: Winner of the USSR Championships

1960, 1961: European Cup Basketball Winner

1961: Master of Sport (International Category)

1960-1965: Most Valuable Basketball Playmaker award, USSR

1963: Medal for Distinguished Sports Achievement

1964: Silver Medal in Basketball at Tokyo Olympics

1964: Order of recognition of USSR (“Znak Pocheta”) for winning silver medal at Tokyo Olympic Games.

Prepared by Kamo Mailyan
Toronto-Yerevan




Brandy production up 41.1% in Armenia

Nahapetian Zhanna
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 4 2018
Economy 10:51 04/01/2018 Armenia

Brandy production grew in Armenia in January-November 2017, the statistics say.

According to the data released by the National Statistical Service, a total of 27 million 864.3 thousand liters of brandy were produced in Armenia within eleven months of 2017, a 41.1% rise over the same period of the previous year.

Armenia saw a 27% increase in brandy production volumes in 2016, with 21 million 529.2 thousand liters of brandy produced in the indicated period.

Armenian church in Kayseri to be renovated

Nahapetian Zhanna
Public Radio of Armenia
Dec 22 2017
15:19, 22 Dec 2017

The Armenian Surp Grigor Lusavorich (Gregory the Illumination) Church in Kayseri, Turkey, will be restored, Hurriyet reports. The municipality will allocate 3.5 million liras (over $900 thousand) for the purpose.

Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Secretary General Hamdi Elcım said that the restoration and repair works will start at the beginning of 2018 after the permission from Kayseri Regional Protection Board of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The project is expected to be completed within 4.5 months.

According to the source, the church was first mentioned in 1191. The demolished church was rebuilt in 1859. In 1885, the church was renovated with the support of the people in a short time.

The city of Kayseri has an important place in the history of the Armenian church. With a population of 400,000 in 250, Kayseri is where St. Gregory the Illumination grew up, was educated and became Christian.

Azerbaijani press: World’s superpowers not interested in resolving Karabakh problem – ISESCO

Nahapetian Zhanna
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The world’s superpowers are not interested in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,ISESCO Director General Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri said Friday, APA reported.

 

According to him, although the UN adopted four resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, none of them has been fulfilled.

 

“The resolutions also point out that the aggressor must immediately withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” said the ISESCO chief.

 

Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri said the Islamic world, faced with severe hardships, should work together to overcome all these difficulties.

 

“The main reason behind this severe situation in our region is that superpowers of the world do injustice by not observing international law. Sometimes they aggravate the situation rather than make an effort to solve the problem. If the UN Security Council fails to ensure peace and security in a region and fulfill its duty, what should we expect from other organizations?!” he added.

 

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

 

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

 

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

 

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCEMinsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

 

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.  

 

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.