Happy New Year!!!

New Year came early for me :) Well, apart from being my favourite holiday for as long as I could remember myself, this time it is particularly special for me. I am going to celebrate it back in Yerevan! I’ve been out of Armenia for couple of years now. Miss enormously. Besides, during last years I used to spend my New Year holiday in other countries, and, to be honest, quite missed the whole Armenian / former Soviet style of celebrations. I know, it can be ‘pain in the ass’, but painfully wonderful nevertheless. Very colourful, in fact.

Celebrating New Year at home, with family, then friends, and yes, TV programmes, special New Year films, special New Year food… it’s a package deal :)

Btw, if you want to visit London, do not do it for Christmas and New Year holiday. It’s the most boring time (ever!) in London. It may be hard to believe, but trust me (as someone who knows how to party and have fun London style), it’s very true. Any other time, this is one of the most exciting cities you could ever find.

Past year was very turbulent for me. To be honest, I do not miss it at all and look forward to its formal farewell. But, hey, I started my blogs this past year; in fact, only several months ago (in April/May); it seems like years though... In 2007, my life was full with unfinished matters, some of which from previous years. It was very stressful at times, frustrating and disheartening… But I made it - THE closure. It feels so good now. It feels liberating. I wish you all effective closure and very happy and exciting New Year ahead!

P.S.
I will resume my blogging most probably at some point during the week of 7th January. But you never know, depending on circumstances, may well continue blogging. Otherwise, will certainly reflect my Yerevan experiences in upcoming posts in New Year.

Many thanks for reading my blogs, many thanks for your comments and messages. Keep in touch!

Goodbye to Freedom?

Bomb explosion (photo above by Regnum) at the office of opposition newspaper Chorrord Ishkhanutyun ('The Fourth Estate') and continuing saga of attempts to shut down the rare dissenting voice of the small regional TV company Gala once more put the question of press freedom in Armenia in the spotlight. In fact, these attemtps are so continuous and regular that the issue never left the spotlight.

It seems to me very relevant to post today about the recent - its first ever - survey of Media Freedom across Europe by the Association of European Journalists (published in November). The survey covered 20 European countries: Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

Entitled Goodbye to Freedom?, this survey "challenges the myth that western European societies are ‘much more free’ than those in eastern Europe. Across the continent, it says, media freedom is under attack from new political and economic pressures." However, as stated in the survey, "Violence and intimidation directed against journalists is unfortunately common in the two states of the former Soviet Union covered, Russia and Armenia." Previous arson attack against Chorrord Ishkhanutyun newspaper is among 13 specific cases of violence and threats against media in Armenia indicated in the survey.

Below are some extracts from Armenia related pages. The full report is available here.

“Thirteen specific cases [of violence and threats of various kinds directed at journalists] were recorded between 2006 and 2007, including the following:-

In September 2007 Hovhannes Galajyan, the Editor-in-chief of Iravunk newspaper, suffered significant injuries and was hospitalised after being attacked by unknown assailants who broke into the newspaper’s offices and beat him using metal bars. Mr Galajyan had already been violently assaulted one year earlier, in front of his own house. He stated after the first attack that he believed it was related to coverage in his newspaper which impugned the reputation of the then Defence Minister (and now Prime Minister), Serge Sarkissyan.

Threatening e-mails were sent to Edik Baghdasaryan, the Editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Hetq, demanding the suppression of articles containing allegations concerning the country’s leading oligarch, Gagik Tsarukyan, who is also a member of parliament.

The editorial offices of The Fourth Estate newspaper were set on fire by unknown arsonists.

The power supply to the printing presses of the regional Syuniats Yerkir newspaper was cut following publication of criticisms of a power supply company.

The car of Souren Baghdasaryan, Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Football+ was twice set on fire.

David Jalavyan, a sports writer on the Haykakan zhamanak newspaper, was injured in a knife attack.

None of these cases of violence towards reporters has been clarified or led to convictions in court. The judicial authorities have shown reluctance in many cases to conduct active investigations, and in the few cases in which individuals have been found guilty of obstructing the work of journalists, only fines or other mild punishments have been meted out. “

"Armenia’s TV channels, all of them in reality controlled from the office of the President, provide the society with systematically biased information, which exclude all expressions of dissent. The written press is also hampered in what it can write by its heavy dependence on major business or political sponsors who exercise tight control over many newspapers by controlling the flow of funds from advertising."

‘Undecided’ will decide the fate of presidential elections in Armenia

According to the telephone poll commissioned by Aravot newspaper and conducted by APR group during 28 November – 1 December 2007 among 663 Yerevan residents, if elections were to be conducted in “coming Sunday” (2 December), the votes may have the following distribution:

Serj Sargsyan – 19.2%
Levon Ter-Petrosyan – 9.2%
Vazgen Manukyan – 4.4%
Artur Baghdasaryan – 2.1%
Vahan Hovhannisyan – 2%
Artashes Geghamyan – 1.4%

Undecided – 31.5%
Against everyone – 18.7%

Based on my subjective understanding of the situation, these numbers (especially re Serj Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan) seem close to reality, as for today. The way ‘undecided’ will vote, would determine the outcomes of the elections. They, in turn, may be influenced by the choice of other respected politicians not participating (unfortunately!) in the election per se (Raffi Hovhannisyan), and redistribution of votes for the second round of elections, which is inevitable.

So, here we are, opportunities for presidential hopefuls to battle for our votes – no bribes, your programmes, please!

Dmitry Medvedev - new President of Russia

Biography Profile

elected on 2nd March 2008 - no mess, no fuss! - à la Putin...

*photo via NEWSru

Arthur Abraham retains IBF middleweight champion title

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Undefeated Arthur Abraham stopped Wayne Elcock in the fifth round to retain his IBF middleweight title Saturday night.

The Armenia-born German knocked down Elcock in the second round and then again in the fifth. The referee stopped the fight after Abraham landed a flurry of punches to the Englishman's head.

Abraham, 25-0 with 20 knockouts, has been eyeing a unification bout against either Jermain Taylor or Kelly Pavlik next year in the United States.

The 27-year-old Abraham's only scare came in the third round, when an accidental head-butt opened up a cut above his right eye. But Elcock (18-3), was unable to take advantage.

"I'm happy that I won tonight," Abraham said. "It wasn't an easy fight."


unrelated/related - see also Unzipped: Gay Armenia

*photos by AFP/Getty Images, AP and Reuters (via Yahoo Sport)

No more ‘King’, please!

Ter-Petrosyan 3rd rally

Along with revisiting past and answering to allegations made by Robert Kocharyan & Serj Sargsyan & co against him, I think the main aim of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech was to reach out to leaders of business world to drop their support of current regime and unite behind him. Likewise, his main intention during previous rally was to gain support of leaders of political parties.

I still look forward to reading his programme to understand clearly how he intend to solve main problems facing Armenia – lack of democracy, Karabakh and corruption.

And one more thing… I wish I would see less, or no… I wish I would not see at all posters of ‘Levon the King’ (like the one below) during his rallies. This is very reminiscent of the cult of personality we do not want to get close to. ‘King’ has no place in future democratic Armenia, as I would like to see my country. I hope people from Levon’s team will not encourage this sort of messages in future.

*photo by Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Armenia among top favourites to win Junior Eurovision 2007

UPDATE: Belarus won with 137 points, just one point ahead of Armenia! Armenia was in the lead most of the time. Well done, Arevik! It's 2nd place, but you were the favourite of internet forums and many Eurovision fans.

Below are live reactions from two popular Eurovision internet sites on Arevik performance:

Armenia: Arevik - Erazanq (Oikotimes):

The first favourite of the evening now on stage. The song receives great applause. The navy style works very good for Armenia. The cameras though move a bit slowly not helping the song performance. More than five seconds were spend to the Greek delegation in the green room. The performance is very good and well organized. The choreography can be simply described as amazing while the stadium is full of Armenian flags.

Armenia: Arevik - Erazanq (Esctoday):

Well, it's hard to understand why the girls of Arevik are wearing these military-like marine outfits. The vocals are very good and the performance is energetic. One of the favourites tonight according to the web polls.



Thriller for Armenia; Shock for Greece! (via Oikotimes):

ARMENIA SHOCKED
Armenian entrants and national broadcaster must be in shock for loosing with 1 point from Belarus. But if you think that Armenia got twice 8th place in senior and a 2nd place in its debut to JESC then you can see that Armenia is working hard and in the right way. Armenia will soon host either of the two shows.

GREECE IN DEEP SHOCK
Greek viewers are still in shock. 12 points Greece got from the organizers like all other countries in the beginning of the voting. Greece got only 2 points later on. From where? From Cyprus. This will be a headline in the news as of tomorrow morning. Cyprus didn't give 12 points to Greece but just 2 points. How did this happened? One explanation might be the low viewing rates. Who cares in Cyprus about JESC? (The answer is no one). The second answer is that the immigrants in Cyprus are more dedicated to their homelands and they got the opportunity to get in touch with them through JESC. Third answer is the obvious: Made In Greece were really bad.[...]

***
Good luck, Arevik!!!

For the first time, Armenia will be represented at Junior Eurovision Song Contest with Arevik band performing "Erazanq" ("Dream").



In fact, Armenia's Arevik is among top favourites to win Junior Eurovision 2007. They will perform third after Georgia and Belgium.

via Oikotimes.com:

THE FAVOURITES
Netherlands, Armenia and Serbia are the big favourites with Romania and Malta to be the outsiders. Oikotimes.com poll in collaboration with partners gathered more than 12.200 votes and predict Serbian victory for JESC tonight. If Serbia wins tonight it will be the first time a country wins both senior and junior edition within the same year. If Netherlands win it will be the first time JESC host country wins in homeland. Cyprus, Belarus and Ukraine are also possible to do extremely well according to the reports from Belgian and Dutch sites. The betting odds predict victory for Armenia or Russia tonight.

***
Here is the link where you can watch the show live: http://www.junioreurovision.tv/addons/mediaplayer/live/juniortv/live.html

British Government denies Armenian Genocide

A shameful response from the Prime Minister office

As a signee of a petition to British PM to recognise the Armenian Genocide of 1915 (petition was signed by 1 136 British residents), I just received a response from the 10 Downing Street:

"You signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to "Recognise the Armenian Genocide of 1915."

The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and you can view it here: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13999.asp

Prime Minister's Office

Petition information - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/armeniangenocide/"

Here is British Government's response in full. It is Denial without boarders... and without shame. A pure disgrace!

"The British Government acknowledges and regrets the terrible events that afflicted the Ottoman Armenian population at the beginning of the last century, when over a million ethnic Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire were killed. Many were massacred; some were victims of civil strife, starvation and disease, which ravaged the whole population of Eastern Anatolia during the First World War.

The massacres were an appalling tragedy, which the British Government of the day condemned. We fully endorse that view. However, neither this Government nor previous British Governments have judged that the evidence is sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide, a convention which is, in any event, not retrospective in application.

The British Government believes that the focus should be on ensuring a progressive approach; to improve the chances for reconciliation between Armenian and Turkish people and to achieve a peaceful and secure future for everyone living in the region. To this end we encourage the Governments of Armenia and Turkey to improve co-operation, economic development and understanding between their countries.

In preparing for EU accession, Turkey must demonstrate its commitment to good neighbourly relations and must have undertaken to resolve outstanding border disputes. The advancement of accession negotiations will be guided by progress made in these, and other areas."

7 December 1988, Armenia, earthquake...

My heart is with all those who lost loved ones...

I was around Republic sq in Yerevan. Do not remember why I was there (instead of being at school), I think I was wandering around bookstores. So did not feel the quake, but soon it became clear that something very bad happened, the atmosphere around was becoming increasingly terrifying... There was lack of information, lots of speculations; especially we had fears of safety of Armenian Nuclear Plant and chemical factories (Nairit and others); we were glued to the radio to get as much news as possible... People started driving in their thousands towards Spitak and Leninakan (Gyumri). It created some obstacles for aid workers but you could not stop the flow. Everyone wanted to go and reach his/her relatives and help others to save lives. I also remember lots of volunteers for blood donations, people were queuing to give their blood to save life of others.

I remember perhaps unprecedented level of international aid that former Soviet Union asked and received from around the world. It helped a lot - not only for assistance per se or its material value but also providing with significant emotional support. Even songs by international stars, like the one produced by Aznavour - Pour toi Aménie - For you, My Arménia, were of invaluable assistance. We were devastated, but suddenly felt that we were not alone. The tragedy 'opened up' Soviet boarders and we were like members of international community.

I wish we remember about the earthquake zone and act on it not only during the anniversaries, but rather all over the year, so that we no longer have earthquake zone. It is impossible to get rid of people's memories, they are immortal, but we have to get rid of 'earthquake zone'.



*video via laztechs

Arrested leaflets

"Tax inspectors have confiscated thousands of newly printed leaflets announcing former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s upcoming rally in Yerevan, it emerged on Thursday. According to Aleksandr Arzumanian, a close Ter-Petrosian associate, an activist of the opposition Aylentrank movement was detained by officials from the State Tax Service (STS) while receiving 4,000 leaflets from a printing house in the capital on Wednesday. He said the activist, Artak Arakelian, was taken into custody on the grounds that he had no documents certifying the origin of the fliers. After keeping him in custody for six hours they fined him 15,000 drams ($50),” Arzumanian told RFE/RL. The STS officials also inspected the Van Arian printing company’s books and briefly detained one of its employees, he said." (Radio Liberty)

Similar crackdown on leaflets with far more serious consequences happened ahead of Ter-Petrosyan second (16 November) rally too:

"Narek Galstian, the 20-year-old leader of the youth wing of a Diaspora-linked pro-Ter-Petrosian party, was hospitalized with serious injuries after being assaulted by unknown individuals in the northern outskirts of Yerevan. The attack two place two days after Galstian and another young activist of the Social Democrat Hnchakian Party (SDHK) were detained by police while posting anti-government leaflets in the city center."

Fear & Oppression in Armenia — Never!

I want to join my voice in solidarity against the atmosphere of fear (posted by Onnik Krikorian) which Armenian authorities are trying to impose ahead of upcoming presidential elections. Today - it's leaflets, tomorrow - it could be something more serious. Actually, 'tomorrow' is partially happening 'today', in a form of tax war with pro-opposition supporters or anyone who could even remotely pose a threat to the authorities or express discontent. This is not Armenia we want to see after 19 February (day of elections).

Here is a photo of ex-President and presidential hopeful Levon Ter-Petrosyan and info on his Saturday rally which apparently seemed so frightening and threatening to authorities that got arrested.

Date: Saturday, December 8, 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Azatutyun Square
City/Town: Yerevan

At least Onnik can expect (potentially) some sort of protection from British officials as British citizen, although it did not shy away thugs in the past. Independent or pro-opposition media representatives from Armenia - who are citizens of Armenia - cannot expect even such theoretical possibility of protection or support. I am not even mentioning here about media solidarity (regardless of political views and affiliations) which is basically non-existent in Armenia, and is one of the main reasons why Armenian journalists are so vulnerable to attacks.

*photo by Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

‘Exit Poll’ is good news for presidential elections in Armenia

It is not frequently that we hear good news related to upcoming presidential election campaign in Armenia. However, this news I would certainly consider Good News.

For the first time, exit poll will be conducted during presidential elections in Armenia. This offer was made by current US envoy in Armenia during his meeting today with Prime Minister and presidential hopeful Serj Sargsyan. Armenian Prime Minister accepted the offer, adding that even if US did not offer it, they would have sought assistance of specialised agencies to conduct exit poll. This is certainly positive development. If the results of exit poll, which are usually announced immediately after polling stations closed, would be similar to official results published by Central Electorate Commission, this would add to legitimacy of conducted elections.

Of course, having exit poll by no means an indicator of fair and free elections (recent example - Russia), because exit poll is mainly aimed at the latest stage of election process – vote count, to ensure that count of votes at local polling stations and in Central Commission are not falsified. This is very important, as we know that one of the most common voting irregularities during Armenian elections used to happen during the vote count. However, it does not reflect pre-election campaign and voting process per se, although indirectly exit poll may reflect the effect of mass ballot stuffing (if it happens) on the final results. What is also important is to ensure that pre-election period gives equal chances for all candidates to access media, and specifically TV (and specifically Public TV!); also to ensure that people are free to make their votes during voting process itself. Only then the elections could be considered free and fair.

In any case, having exit poll is a positive development, and I welcome Armenian government’s positive attitude towards it.

It's Christmas (shopping) time!

Oxfam Christmas message to London shoppers: Say 'No' to Rubbish Presents!


*I took this photo yesterday on Regents st in central London

HIV/AIDS situation in Armenia

Statistics and commentary

see Unzipped: Gay Armenia

*picture via A1+

New Statesman: Putin's copycats

Interesting article in New Statesman today by Thomas de Waal. Very relevant to us (and the South Caucasus region) for this election period, recommend it. Below are some extracts. Full article is here

Whether in pro-western or pro-Moscow states, repression and corruption are flourishing among Russia's neighbours

A post-Soviet president makes a highly publicised visit to a patriotic youth camp where he denounces the international community for being "amoral" in its stance towards his fight with separatists. Later he moves to clamp down on the opposition and has its main television station pulled off the air. He blames most of his troubles on a London-based oligarch. The president behaves in this slightly paranoid and aggressive manner even though his party dominates parliament and he has marginalised his critics.

This is not Vladimir Putin, but the Georgian president for almost four years who was until recently a darling of the west - Mikhail Saakashvili.
[...]

Sixteen years after the end of perestroika, this is a depressing picture. In 1991 western opinion was much too utopian about these newly independent states. The favoured image used to be one of "transition" and even the smallest Anglo-Saxon news story used to refer to countries from Armenia to Tajikistan as being "in transition to democracy and a market economy".
[...]

Nursultan Nazarbayev, once regarded as a reformist ally of Mikhail Gorbachev, has slowly transformed himself into president-for-life in Kazakhstan, with his family installed in key positions. In Azerbaijan, the communist-era boss Heydar Aliyev became leader and then handed over the presidency to his son.

The first priority was to retain power. When the Armenian opposition tried to dispute the outcome of the 1996 election, the then defence minister, Vazgen Sarkisian, famously put them in their place, saying: "Even if they win 100 per cent of the votes, neither the army nor the National Security Service, nor the ministry of the interior, would recognise these leaders." [current Prime Minister and presidential hopeful Serj Sargsyan was the Minister of National Security back then - Unzipped] In the South Caucasus and central Asia, no presidential candidate from the ruling elite has lost an election since 1991. Increasingly, parliaments are stuffed with loyal servants or friendly businessmen.
[...]

Geography matters here. In the central Asian republics, where the EU exerts no pull and international condemnation means little, governments can get away with abominations such as the 2005 massacre of hundreds of civilians in the Uzbek town of Andijan. In the western and southern states, "the idea of Europe" means something. In the South Caucasian states of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the governments worry about their status in the Council of Europe and Nato, and behave better, but sharing power is not an option.
[...]

The Georgian crisis has at least opened some eyes in Europe. The issue of how to deal with its eastern neighbourhood is surely becoming the EU's biggest foreign policy challenge. How do you exert positive influence in countries where a progressive minority still has an "idea of Europe" when you are unable to offer the one prospect with the power to transform - the hope of eventual EU membership?

Where Georgia leads, others may follow. Weak states with self-serving elites are prone to in stability. We can be certain of two things: that Putin's copycats will not give up power easily; and that if events do force them to come tumbling down, the collapse will bring an awful lot of rubble and chaos with it.

Deja vu, or those magical 2-3 years: Vazgen Manukyan vs Levon Ter-Petrosyan

Vazgen Manukyan (28 November 2007): "All these [his programme, including adoption of new Consitution which should be one of the main tasks of the future President of Armenia] will require 2-3 years; afterwards there will be new elections [to ensure government formed by the will of people]."

Levon Ter-Petrosyan (16 November 2007): "Exactly 3 years after assuming the office of the President of the Republic of Armenia, I will be prepared to forever retire from politics, giving you the opportunity to elect the country’s new President through a fully free and legitimate election. Further, I will not interfere in that election - it will be conducted by the Speaker of the National Assembly. I need 3 years to clean these Augean Stables, and put the state back on track. By “putting the state back on track,” I mean a comprehensive program of action, which I will present to you in future speeches and public statements."

*photos via A1+ and Hetq

'Clinical case' of Artashes Geghamyan

I posted my comment/opinion of Artashes Geghamyan yesterday in Onnik Krikorian's Armenia Election Monitor 2008 blog:

[...] As to Artashes Geghamyan, he is the most unstable and dependent political populist among current players. He is not even a player. He is just a PR tool for those who guide him. I can’t remember any occasion that Geghamyan displayed principal position in a critical time. It was always anything but... One should follow him since it may give an indirect indication of state of affairs within the authorities. Other than that, when he speaks, what I hear is blah, blah, blah...

Today Lragir added this hilarious 'clinical' description of that so called presidential candidate:

"I have been criticizing the acting government over the past 9 years. But I am not suffering amnesia to forget what Levon Ter-Petrosyan had done,” he [Artashes Geghamyan] said and devoted the first pre-election meeting of his party to denigrating Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

He failed to say which definite episodes of the policy of the acting government he criticized because apparently he is not suffering amnesia but has “caught” sclerosis. It is common knowledge that a person who suffers sclerosis remembers what took place a long time ago but forgets where he has left his glasses or why he has come to the kitchen.

On top of all, the Public Television of Armenia devoted 15 of the precious 30 minutes of the news program to cover this clinical case. [...]"

And in a further developments, Radio Liberty reports that "at least three leaders of local chapters have resigned their membership in Artashes Geghamyan’s National Accord Party (AMK) after the latter’s blistering attack on the former president during a party meeting on Tuesday."

"Gurgen Grigoryan, who headed the party’s structure in the Yerevan district of Erebuni, confirmed to RFE/RL the reports that appeared in the Armenian press about frictions within the party following Geghamyan’s critical remarks about Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He further claimed that 3,500 members of the party in Erebuni were ready to follow suit and join the opposition movement spearheaded by Ter-Petrosyan."

"Enough is enough. I’m not a bird to swallow the bait. People now realize that you [AMK] are really useless. And I don’t want to bear the stamp of a betrayer,” Grigoryan told RFE/RL.

"Grigoryan charged that Geghamyan is in fact “working for the authorities to split the opposition” and said he no longer wanted to participate in the “dirty games”.

“All actions by Geghamyan reveal him as an ‘oppositionist’ closely connected with the authorities. He’s been doing everything to loosen the opposition,” Grigoryan continued. “I have made sure that he wants to improve his own well-being rather than change the system.” Grigoryan also claims that Geghamyan effectively refused to back another opposition leader Stepan Demirchyan, who faced a runoff with Robert Kocharyan in the 2003 presidential election, and warned them not to participate in the opposition rallies then."

Levon Ter-Petrosyan: presidential campaign website launched

After several attempts of creating supporters' websites for presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan, it seems that this one will be an official campaign site (any of the following addresses work):

http://www.levonpresident.am/
http://www.levonforpresident.com/
http://www.levonforpresident.org/

News on its launch came via Aramazd. All previous attempts failed to deliver proper content. This one seems like a decent website. It contains biography, current news and archive material, including photos and speeches by Ter-Petrosyan dating back to 1988-1990. Site is predominantly in Armenian. According to Aramazd, English version will be available soon. There is also interactive content there - blog, comments, but these are in their early stages. I assume site will develop further to become fully functional, with more contents added.

I managed to look at the site only at a glance. The only annoying part I found so far is that on-site music auto-plays any time when you go to the main page, and you have to find and manually stop it. I always find it annoying when website developers put the music on by default (however nice the music may be), instead of giving visitors an option to switch it on if they wish to do so.

Interesting to note, that Ter-Petrosyan programme section is still "under construction" and divided into 5 headings: Karabakh issue; combating corruption; economic reforms; foreign relations; and army reform. I assume these will be the main issues which Levon will address during his upcoming speeches.

Armenia vs Turkey - 2010 FIFA World Cup draw

Fantastic draw! That will be THE matches! I will do whatever possible or impossible to be present there. Hope that Armenian and Turkish fans will behave, and we won't witness any ugly scenes, but rather will celebrate the occasion to get to know each other better and use sporting spirit for reconciliation (not destruction!), and a pint of beer? It's funny that football draws frequently bring us with 'sensitive' outcomes. It's more than a fate...

2010 FIFA World Cup Europe draw - Group 5:
Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia

Serj Tankian doing Beatles in London Astoria

I could not make it but here are impressions of tablaqueen who was lucky to be there:

"[...] They put all the lights and fog on when he came on so you couldn't really see - everyone hollered when a figure in a top hat appeared... only then we noticed that the whole band was wearing them - which looked pretty cool, but they lost them later - and then finally Serj appeared himself. Wearing a cream top hat and cream coat, white shirt and black trousers.

He actually did look quite like a ringleader and the way he behaved onstage was a bit ring-leaderish too. He had the odd mental moment but mostly he was fairly calm, just making pronouncements in sort of typical Serj fashion every so often. Anyway. He didn't play that long really, but then he hasn't got loads of solo material yet, and i gather he refuses to play any System stuff.

He did a fantastic cover of Holiday in Cambodia, which was a bit lost on the young ones in the crowd, but us old farts were dancing around to it ;), and then he said -Hey, we're in London so i have to do a Beatles song!' er, did no one ever tell Serj the Beatles were from Liverpool? i was a bit doubtful about the Beatles song but he actually did it really well - partly Beatles ish and partly mental metal style, finishing off with that howler monkey noise that death metal singers do.

So that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, i don't know the name of the song - unless there is a song called Girl? it was one i recognise but don't know that well.

i noticed on the quieter songs mostly no one waves lighters about anymore - now it's thousands of camera phones instead... i'm quite pleased about that as the lighter waving always makes me think of Bryan Adams. One or two did have them - if i'd been near them i would have blown the darn things out. One doesn't wish to be reminded of Bryan Adams at a Serj concert after all.

i did wish i had had the presence of mind to bring an Armenian flag along to wave about at him - i don't have one, but i could perhaps have made one - some others in the bottom crowd did have one and were flapping it about - i was quite jealous! [...]"

Lame excuse - "tiredness" to justify poor rank in Euro 2008 qualifying

That was unpleasant downfall of Armenian national football
team after the defeat at home 0:1 to Kazakhstan. Previously, Armenia beat Kazakhstan 2:1. This made our team finish Euro 2008 qualifying next to last (Azerbaijan finished last).

When asked by journalists, coach Vardan Minasyan 'explained' losing the game by "tiredness" of our players. A typical lame excuse to justify defeat. Our team schedule was not more stressful than that of most of the teams within the Euro 2008 qualifying.

After Ian Porterfield died, we do not have proper chief coach for our national team, and there is steady decline in quality and performance. It's not that they are particularly bad, no, but the impression is that there is no progress anymore, and there is a downward trend instead. Anticipations and excitements were high back then. We need new Ian Porterfield, and less politics in Armenian football.

*photo by Photolur (via A1+)