Armenian News - Sent by A Topalian
Additional Olympic Information from Sarkis Dagdevirian
It's a good article about the Armenian Olympians.
I have to make few additions, that were missed by Arman Sonents.
The 1st (and only) Gold Medal that Armenia won as an independent country,
was at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, by Armen Nazaryan in
Greco-Roman Wrestling. He later, in 2000 Sydney Olympics, won another
gold medal, but this time for Bulgaria. In 2004 Athens Olympics he won the
bronze medal, with Bulgaria again.
In this year's London Olympics, Armenia's team had an Olympian in Boxing
also, other than the sports mentioned by the author.
Other than Russia's Arsen Galstyan (the gold medalist in Judo), there were
2 more Armenians in the Russian team, Boxers Misha Aloian (52kg) and David
Ayrapetyan (49kg), who both came 3rd in their respective weight divisions and
won bronze medals. So, in the Russian team, 3 out of 3 Armenians won medals...
We had an Armenian with Belorussia's team: Vazgen Safaryants in Boxing (60kg),
who was eliminated in the Round of 1/16.
Finally, the US Women Water-Polo team, that Adam Krikorian coached, brought
home the gold medal (first ever for the US Women Water-Polo in Olympic
competition), beating Spain in the Final game 8-5 on Aug. 9.
Probably there are other athletes (and coaches) of Armenian origin, but don't have
obvious Armenian names, therefore and unfortunately we are missing them.
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 14 2012
Gagik Tsarukian's million did not help Armenia
Author: Sergey Mkrtchyan, Yerevan, exclusively to VK
At the London Olympics, Armenia was represented by 25 athletes in nine
sporting events. Compared to the Beijing Olympics, the number of
Armenian athletes did not change, but rhythmic gymnastics and
taekwondo were added to the number of sporting events. Traditionally,
Armenia's main hope for medals has been associated with weightlifting
and wrestling. In certain scenarios, it was possible to hope for
medals in boxing, shooting and taekwondo. In other events, the
Armenians were ruled by the motto `it's not the winning, it's the
taking part'.
After the 6 bronze medals won in Beijing in 2008, the Armenian sports
officials' goal was to win an Olympic gold. A fabulous prize of $1
million from the president of the National Olympic Committee of
Armenia (NOC), Gagik Tsarukyan, was prepared for the winner. The
well-known businessman promised this amount to the Armenian Olympic
team four years ago, but it remained unclaimed. This time the head of
the National Olympic Committee refrained from official statements, but
made it clear that he would do his best for the winner.
In any case, the country did not get a 14th Olympic champion (Armenia
has 13 winners in the Games, who have won a total of 17 gold medals).
At first, the beginning of the Olympics was unlucky for the Armenian
athletes. Norayr Bakhtamyan, an experienced shooter, did not manage to
get through to the final, being eliminated before the quarter-finals.
Hovhannes Davtyan, an Armenian judoka, was a footstep away from a
bronze medal. Armen Nazarian, another Armenian judoka, left the mat
even before. Arthur Davtyan, a gymnast, is considered to be a
promising athlete, but he has still not brought an Olympic medal to
the country (he came 36th in the all-round competition). Swimmers
Michael Koloyan and Anahit Barseghyan arrived in London only because
of additional vacant positions provided by the IOC and, therefore, did
not demonstrate considerable results (45th and 44th places
respectively). A much more unpleasant surprise was the defeat of the
sole representative of Armenia in boxing, Andranik Hakobyan. Being up,
he managed to lose because of a technical knockout in the final 10
seconds of the fight. Athletes for whom getting to the Olympics can
already be considered a major success did not overcome the qualifying
competitions, and this was quite expected.
The most unpleasant surprise was presented by the weightlifters. One
after another, Arakel Mirzoyan, Meline Daluzyan and Ara Khachatryan
received `zeros", unable to lift the ordered weight; these were
athletes who could really compete for a place on the podium. An
unexpected injury to the world champion of 2010 Tigran Martirosyan at
the finish of the final pre-Olympic camp in Podolsk added to all the
troubles. Against this background, the 11th position of the son of the
famous weightlifter Yuri Vardanyan-Norayr looks like an achievement,
though it sounds ironic. Expectations were met only in respect of
Hripsime Khurshudyan, who won a bronze medal in the heavyweight
division.
The fighters had to compensate for the failures of the weightlifters.
Arsene Julfalakyan (weight category 74 kg) was a footstep away from
the gold medal, almost repeating the achievement of his father and the
main coach of Armenia's Greco-Roman wrestling team Levon Julfalakyan,
who became Olympic champion at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Having
reached the finals, Julfalakyan Jr. (pictured) was defeated by Roman
Vlasov (Russia) in a bitter struggle. 20-year-old Arthur Alexanyan (96
kg) also did quite well. Arthur participated in two fights with a
broken rib for the bronze medal against a Turk and a Cuban, overcoming
the pain.
Yuri Patrikeev, for whom these games were probably the last of his
career, did not reach the podium. The other wrestlers (1 Greco-Roman
wrestler and 3 freestyle wrestlers) returned home empty-handed. In
addition, Armen Yeremyan, representing Armenian taekwondo at the
Olympic Games for the first time, was defeated by a representative of
the host of the competition in the fight for the bronze medal.
Thus, Armenia failed to win any gold medals in London. Knowing the
ambitions of the leadership of the NOC, there is no doubt that the
outcome of the 2012 Games will result in a serious debriefing.
Daily Telegraph - Good luck to a new Armenia
RFE/RL Report
More Syrian Armenian Children Arrive In Armenia
Naira Bulghadarian
14.08.2012
A second group of ethnic Armenian children from Syria arrived in
Armenia on Tuesday to spend their holidays at a local summer camp as
part of a special program launched by the authorities in Yerevan.
The nearly 130 schoolchildren from the war-torn city of Aleppo
accompanied by 19 teachers arrived at the Zvartnots airport on a
special Armavia flight sponsored by a Yerevan-based charity and Ara
Abrahamian, a Russian-Armenian businessman. They proceeded to the
children's camp central in the Armenian resort of Hankavan, which
hosted 119 other Syrian Armenian teenagers, all of them from Damascus,
last week.
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian visited the Hankavan camp on Monday,
talking, sharing meal and even dancing with the children. He also
familiarized himself with living conditions there.
`I want to assure you that the Armenian government will do everything
to ease your troubles,' Sarkisian told them in a speech. `As you know,
we expect the arrival of a new group from Aleppo tomorrow. I am
convinced that the atmosphere reigning in the camp will enable all of
us to more easily overcome challenges facing a small section of the
Armenian people.'
The Armenian people have rallied around the Syrian Armenians,
and everybody -- from the private sector to ordinary citizens of
Armenia -- is trying to give support,' he said.
The government scheme is meant to give some 400 young Syrian Armenians
respite from deadly violence and turmoil that engulfed their country
more than a year ago. Government officials in Yerevan stress that
their arrival in Armenia must not be seen as an evacuation. They say
the children are due to spend only two weeks at the camp. With no end
to fighting in Syria in sight, it is not clear, however, whether they
will be sent back home afterwards.
`We can't get on with our lives there anymore,' Sevan Keleshian, a
young schoolteacher accompanying the Aleppo group, told RFE/RL's
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) at Zvartnots. `There is a lot of
fear. We don't know what will happen tomorrow. I hope that there is
more assistance from Armenia to those people who want to move here.'
Many of the newly arrived children are visiting the country of their
ancestors for the first time. Some were greeted at the Yerevan airport
by their Syrian Armenian relatives living in Armenia.
Noem Manukian, a Yerevan-based Syrian Armenian woman, was happy to
welcome her two grandchildren. She said she would like them to stay in
Armenia and go to a local school.
`The country [Syria] is being destroyed,' Manukian told RFE/RL's
Armenian service. `Will it ever be rebuilt? I don't think so.'
Raffi Tashjian, another former Aleppo resident, met his nephew at
Zvartnots. `I want him to stay here and not go back,' he said.
The children and their teachers were said to have passed several
government and rebel checkpoints as they travelled from central Aleppo
to a nearby international airport on Tuesday morning. `We were checked
by both government and opposition forces,' said Keleshian.
`They went to the airport in a convoy this morning,' said Tashjian. He
said the convoy was escorted by `armed Armenian guys protecting
Armenian neighborhoods' in Syria's largest city.
IWPR Report
Armenia Struggles to Cut Nicotine Habit
Health ministry says it is making inroads, but stronger laws would help.
By Sara Khojoyan [1] -
10 Aug 12
•
Armenian health officials say they have made some progress towards reducing
the current high rates of smoking, but critics say hard-hitting legislation is slow
in coming.
Men are far worse offenders than women, and according to one survey done in
2010, over 60 per cent of males between the ages of 15 and 47 smoke.
“Smoking among men in particular is a public health problem,” said Arusyak
Harutyunyan of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Armenia.
In 2010, the government set up a special commission in to coordinate efforts to
reduce smoking. It has also produced public health adverts, trained doctors in
how to get patients to quit. Although ministers have submitted half a dozen bills
to parliament, legislators have yet to pass a law aimed at restricting tobacco
consumption.
The latest edition of the American Cancer Society’s Tobacco Atlas ranks
Armenia third in the world for the proportion of deaths caused by smoking-related
conditions.
“About 3,000 to 4,000 people die of tobacco-related illnesses every year,” said
Alexander Bazarchyan, who heads the health ministry’s public health department
and coordinates of its Tobacco Control Programme.
Bazarchyan said 50 per cent of all deaths in the country are caused by heart disease,
and another 20 per cent by cancer.He said the efforts made so far were already
producing results.
“The campaign is generally considered effective if the annual decline in the number
of smokers is between one and 1.5 per cent. On that basis, we can say the numbers
have been cut by four per cent in the last four years,” he said. “Ten years ago, no one
would complain if people smoked in buses or in high-end shops and restaurants.
But the mindset of a certain section of society has changed.”
What was needed now, Bazarchyan said, was tougher legislation.
“There has to be a 100 per cent price increase and tight restrictions on advertising.
Distribution and availability of tobacco must be limited as well,” he said.
The government has already instructed the justice ministry to draft a new bill placing
greater restrictions on the sale and consumption of tobacco, removing them from
display in supermarkets, and requiring restaurants and cafes to set aside non-smoking
areas.
An earlier version of this bill went before parliament for debate in October, but was
withdrawn the same day.
According to Narine Movsisyan of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Armenia, “At 11 in
the morning, Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan announced that the bill would be on parliament’s
agenda, but at four in the afternoon the same day, he said the government had withdrawn
the bill. One can only guess at what happened between 11 and four.”
Justice ministry spokesperson Karine Kalantaryan told IWPR the bill had been withdrawn
for further amendment, but declined to give any information about these changes.
Anti-smoking activists were concerned that the bill’s hasty withdrawal coincided lobbying
from the tobacco industry, which includes two of the top ten taxpayers in Armenia.
“We are entirely convinced that the tobacco businesses were against the bill,” Movsisyan
said. “The public interest must kept clearly separate from business interests.”
Tobacco companies denied lobbying against the bill. Vahram Brutyan, who works as
spokesman for both Grand Tobacco and International Masis Tabak, told IWPR that the
two companies would support all the restrictions currently being considered.
“Local manufacturers support the idea of separate rooms for smokers and banning cigarette
advertising in supermarkets. We’re even in favour of removing tobacco products from public
view – a practice common in many European countries, the United States and Canada,”
he said.
The Armenian
president’s office funds a number of non-government organisations to run
anti-smoking programmes, using the Development and Integration group as intermediary.
Fourteen NGOs received funding between 2008 and 2011, although there are questions
about their visibility and effectiveness. IWPR tried to contact them, but none was listed in
the phone directory or on the internet.
Movsisyan said her coalition had repeatedly contacted the president’s office for further
information, but found it “impossible to find out what kind of projects had been carried
out with the funding”.
A spokesman for the presidential administration was unable to tell IWPR how projects
were supervised or how effectively the money had been spent.
Lia Khachatryan, head of Development and Integration, said one of the groups now being
funded, Healthcare Forum, was expected to launch an
education programme in September.
The NGO itself was only set up in January.
“We usually offer grants to start-up NGOs so as to give them a chance to launch their
activities,” she said.
Sara Khojoyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
News.Az
Azerbaijan buys 47 warcrafts, 109 helicopters over decade
Mon 13 August 2012 09:44 GMT | 10:44 Local Time
Azerbaijan took important steps for strengthening the military airpark
over the last 10 years.
As a result of researches conducted by APA on the basis of reports of
the UN Register of Conventional Arms, in 2001-2011, Baku strengthened
its aviation park with new warcrafts, combat helicopters and unmanned
aerial vehicles.
According to reports presented by the purchasing and selling
countries, Azerbaijan bough 47 warcrafts and 109 helicopters from
various countries over the last 10 years. Azerbaijan included more
than 30 unmanned aerial vehicles to the armament of the Armed Forces.
During analysis of reports, Azerbaijan bought warcrafts from 4
countries - Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Georgia, helicopters - from
Russia and Ukraine, UAV's from Israeli and local enterprises.
Azerbaijan bought 13 Su-25 warcrafts (12 Su-25 and 1 Su-25UB) from
Georgia, 12 L-39, 16 MiG-29 (2 MiG-29UB, 14 MiG-29) from Ukraine, 6
Su-25 from Belarus. In general, Azerbaijan included 19 Su-25, 15
MiG-29, 12 L-39 Albatros warcrafts to its airpark.
A s regards the helicopters, Azerbaijan bought 12 Mi-24 (1 Mi-24R)
from Ukraine, 24 Mi-35M, 71 Mi-8/Mi-17V1/Mi-171, 2 Ka-31 helicopters
from Russia. The agreement was signed with `Rosoboroneksport' company
in 2010 on purchase of 84 helicopters (60 Mi-17V1 and 24 Mi-35M) and
the deliveries are being continued.
RFE/RL Report
Azeri Defense Chief Again Threatens War With Armenians
14.08.2012
Azerbaijan renewed threats to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by
force on Tuesday, with Defense Minister Safar Abiyev saying that the
Armenian side is leaving Baku with no other option.
`Unwilling to peacefully return Azerbaijan's occupied lands, Armenia
is every day bringing forward the start of a new war,' Azerbaijani
news agencies quoted Abiyev as telling General Myles Deering, the
visiting commander of the Oklahoma National Guard.
Abiyev complained that long-running mediation efforts by the U.S.,
Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have not produced
any `concrete results.' In these circumstances, he said, Azerbaijan
has no option but to `liberate the occupied territories.'
Azerbaijani leaders have for years been threatening to forcibly regain
control of Karabakh and Armenian-controlled lands surrounding it. The
Armenian side has repeatedly condemned and dismissed those threats,
saying that the Azerbaijani military would suffer another defeat.
The United States, the European Union and Russia have likewise spoken
out against possible attempts at a military solution to the
Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of `unpredictable and
disastrous consequences' of renewed fighting in the conflict zone when
she visited Yerevan and Baku in June. `The use of force will not
resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and therefore force must not be
used,' Clinton said.
Tsarukyan Shares His Billions With Wife Javahir
Grisha Balasanyan
hetq
13:43, August 13, 2012
Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan is the wealthiest MP
in the Armenian parliament since 2007.
His revenues and financial resources are counted in the millions, nay,
billions. He `s also the first MP who has presented his wife with
gifts valuing in the millions.
Tsarukyan's 7 page financial disclosure is too full of numbers and
figures to present here. I'll just list the highlights.
He declared $13 million and 987,356 Euros as stock shares in various
businesses. Tsarukyan declared 19.5 billion AMD in stock shares.
Tsarukyan's cash holding break down thusly: 280.5 million AMD, $23.8
million and 25.7 million Euros.
Tsarukyan's wife Javahir also has substantial financial assets - 19.5
billion AMD worth of securities and other investments.
Mrs. Tsarukyan declared cash holdings of 21.7 million AMD and revenues
of 11.8 billion AMD. A small percentage of this is her salary (560,000
AMD) and the rest is declared as a gift from her husband.
No comments:
Post a Comment