When Armenia started losing during yesterday’s game, I was totally heartbroken at first. But than I looked and saw, that in reality, we’re not losing. The score is nothing – our team was playing so good, that I don’t care about the score anymore. Armenia finally has a great football team for the whole world to see and for us – fans, to enjoy. That was a great game, guys! Go Armenia, you’re super!

Feels like we won! Armenia was the best on the field today. The guys showed excellent football against all odds #Euro2012 #Armenia—
Artur Papyan (@ditord) October 11, 2011

PS: Following the game referee Eduardo Gonzalez has become the most wanted man in Armenia. There’s even an online game dedicated especially to him.

Armenia beat Slovakia 4:0 in a Euro 2012 qualifier, moving into the frame for qualification. We’re 3rd in our group and we’ve scored more than any other team.

This is the match I followed entirely on Twitter, after the first goal of the Armenian team was greeted by a crazy yell from my neighbors below, above and on both sides and the whole apartment house seemed to shake…

As I had urgent work to do, I decided against turning on the TV and just opened a Twitter client to stay updated, and oh my! It went crazy… I’m not a big football fan, but I can see how a couple of victories like this might turn me into one.

Armenia, I’m proud of you! Congrats to all Armenians!

Four athletes are representing Armenia in 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver: Kristine Khachatryan (cross-country skiing), Sergey Mikayelyan (cross-country skiing), Arsen Nersisyan (alpine skiing), Ani Serebrakian (alpine skiing).

	KHACHATRYAN Kristine Sport: Cross-Country Skiing Age 20
	MIKAYELYAN SergeySport: Cross-Country Skiing Age 17
	NERSISYAN Arsen Sport: Alpine Skiing Age 22
	SEREBRAKIAN Ani-Matilda Sport: Alpine Skiing Age 21

Here is a list of our athletes with links to their profiles on the official Olympics website, where you can trace their participation results and check out the schedules for events where they’ll be participating.

Hopes are not very high for a win – Armenia has never won a medal in Winter Olympics before, and the best result ever achieved was 31st place by Arsen Harutyunian in cross-country skiing in 1994. Still, Olympics is about participation, they say. So very true in our case!

At the moment of writing Sergey Mikayelyan and Kristine Khachatryan have  already taken part in their competitions. Sergey came 70th out of 95 in men’s 15km cross-country skiing, and Kristine was 76th out of 78 in women’s 10km cross-country skiing.  Arsen and Ani are waiting their turn – good luck guys!

I’m all for basketball diplomacy after Armenia’s “Hatis-Yerevan” team beat Turkey’s “Beshiktash” again on December 17th. Our girls are cool – they beat “Beshiktash” in Istanbul 87-64  in November, and beat them again here in Yerevan – 78։72.

This is good news for Armenia, and for international basketball in general. Whilst Playing bingo online here and visiting casino gaming websites might have opened up access to those who enjoy competing within a digital arena, this has not always been the case for those who prefer more physical sports. It is certainly good to see this team establishing itself within the international sports areas, as this is sure to open up a number of future opportunities for those involved.

If you’re getting all interested, patriotic and stuff, make sure to check out their website – www.hatis.am. Even though there are many foreigners playing in the team, and there aren’t very many in Armenians in the leading cast, meaning the team is more international when it comes to ethnicity, they are really cool as a whole. The team is both very old, meaning “Hatis” existed in Soviet days, but also very young – it was reestablished in August 2009, and it has already made it to the play offs of the European Cup 2009/10. Well done girls!

Along with Nazik Avdalian, our very own World Weightlifting champion (and  Gyumri girl at that, which makes me especially proud), the girls are proving – they’re the hope for this country’s future. Well done again, girls!

Last year Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan started the ‘football diplomacy’ – an initiative to tie sport to normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations, by inviting Turkey’s president Abdula Gul to Yerevan to watch the Armenia-Turkey game together. Gul’s visit was historical, as it was the first ever visit of a Turkish president to Armenia, while the two countries still lack diplomatic relations. Currently Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsian is weighing his chances and deciding on whether he should pay a return visit.

Meanwhile, Armenian football fans complain of continuous poor performance of Armenia’s national football team. In fact, several newspapers reported on Tuesday, that police used force against hardcore fans of Armenia’s national football as they reacted angrily (but not violently) to its defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a game played at Yerevan’s Republican Stadium on Saturday, September 5th. The police confiscated a huge banner accusing Armenian players of “disgracing” the nation and beat several fans in the process. The fans responded by chanting “Shame! Shame!” and demanding the resignation of Ruben Hayrapetian, the controversial chairman of the Armenian Football Federation.

Hopefully this victory will raise the spirit of Armenian national football team as they head to Turkey for the game entangled into president Sargsian’s ‘football diplomacy’.

The 2008 Chess Olympiad was constantly in the center of Pataphysicus blog’s attention, which kept its readers updated with the latest news and analyses on the course of the games. The blog had special coverage on the 11th – final round of the Olympiad – providing fresh updates nearly every 20 minutes. No wonder that at 17:50, it was one of the first to announce with joy: “Armenia is the Olympic Champion. Congratulations to us all”.

Over the next hours Armenian bloggers flooded the internet with congratulations and highlighted the names of victorious generals of bloodless chess-wars: Levon Aronian, Vladimir Hakobian, Tigran Petrossian, Gabriel Sargsian.

Naysaikus also noted the victory of Geogian women’s team. “We are the best among men, Georgians – among women. Together we can claim the title of “world’s smartest piece of land”, the blog has remarked.

The victory of Armenian chess team has a greater significance for Infernoarm in terms of internal political developments in Armenia. The Armenian society, deeply divided by bitter political confrontation and post-election violence as a result of 2008 February presidential elections,l had not been so united for months. The Olympic gold, for once, made many forget their differences. “We won, despite the March 1 violence and all the negative developments in the country throughout the past year. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, why this Olympic gold is more valuable than the previous one. We were waiting for ourselves. We were able to withstand. We won the fight against ourselves”,- Infernoarm has commented exactly on this aspect of Chess victory. So has Nazarian, noting: “There is a depressing deficit of good news coming out of Armenia. But fortunately we sometimes come across occasions that should be celebrated.”

At least one Armenian blogger – Macbeck, has taken time to visit the scene of Olympiad in Dresden. The blogger has posted photos and brilliant comments, showing the Armenian team at play on the 10-th, pre-final round of Olympic games, which were recognized by many as the best, most vivid coverage of this years Chess Olympics. This Russian langauge entry by Macbeck is a must for those, wishing to get the feel of what its like to be at the center of Chess Olympic games and warrying, along with players and trainers and fans, for the victory of our national team.

Download the Armenian language Podcast of this entry or listen to it online by clicking the player icon below.

Tigran Petrosian defeated Chao Li, bringing the golden point to the Armenian team. The games between the pairs Levon Aronian – Yue Wang, Vladimir Hakobian – Xiangzhi Bu, Gabriel Sargissian – Hua Ni ended in a draw.

The nearest competitor, Ukraine is badly loosing to the US team. Israel also has some remote chances of catching up with our team if they beat the Netherlands, but with additional indicators the Armenian team has a serious advantage, so we can already say quite safely, that WE DID IT! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS AGAIN! Well done our champions – Levon Aronian, Vladimir Hakobian, Gabriel Sargissian, Tigran Petrosian!

Abraham landed two rights to Marquez’s right eye in the sixth round and the challenger’s camp called off the fight just before the seventh was due to start.

“King Arthur” improved his record to 28-0 with 22 knockouts.

“I can’t really understand why he gave up,” Abraham said. “I really wanted to start going at him in earnest starting in the sixth round. But he gave up too early and disappointed the spectators.”
    The 37-year-old Marquez, who was the mandatory challenger, said he lost to a better fighter.

Abraham lives in Germany, but maintains close ties with Armenia. Earlier this year he was in Yerevan and appeared in on TV, mentining in a show on Second Armenian TV channel, if I recall correctly, that he dedicates most of his wins to beloved motherland – Armenia.

Life in Armenian Diaspora blog has reflected on Armenia’s football diplomacy in relation to Turkey and the news on the plans to build a new railway connecting Armenia to Iran.

This is great news, as it only has one rail line functioning at the moment, and that is from unreliable Georgia. [] But what is clear is that a new line through Iran is vital for Armenia’s survival and options. Until Armenia has an outlet to the sea, they need to be able to not depend on Turks and Georgians for transportation. The Turks will finally realize that Armenia does have another option and that they’ve missed a big opportunity by not opening the border much earlier. Now Armenia will not be beholden to Turkey’s whims and preconditions. Ever. Or that’s the idea anyway, and they’ll know it. At this point, even if Turkey throws the border gates wide open, the rail project should go ahead.

Unzipped has posted Tigran Paskevichyan’s 10 minute documentary – “Enstrangement”, which was prevented from being screened at Yerevan’s “Moscow” cinema theatre days after another film – by Tigran Khzmalyan this time was also denied the chance to be displayed on the same cinema screen. “Censorship should have no place in Armenia. Censorship should be (and will be) defeated.” – Unzipped says and I so wholeheartedly agree!!!

Pigh is making first steps in the sphere of developing blog-documentaries :) He has posted a photo of the ancient stone with inscriptions estimated to belong to 782 B.C. and used as solid proof to the fact, that Erebuni-Yerevan, the capital of Armenia was found 2790 years ago. As Yerevan celebrates it’s incredible age on October 12 (Rome was found dacades later, on 753 B.C), Pigh posts an extract from Urartu King Argishti’s inscription: “With the Greatness of God Haldi, Son of Menua Argishti found this powerful fortress and gave it the name Erebuni, for the power of the state of Biainili”. Anyway, considering the blogger’s name is also Tigran and the attempt is somewhat ‘documental’, stakes are high his blog will also be banned :)

Anyway, the Podcast of all of the above and more, including an interview with the extreemly prolific blogger 517design (who has recently started also a new English language blog – Armenia Discovered)  can be downloaded from here.

You can also listen to the Podcast online by clicking the player icon below:

Unzipped has an exciting post about the surprise win of the Armenian national youth team (European Championship Qualifying Stage of the Under 21 Championship) over Turkey.  Although the game was not that significant and the youth teams are rarely considered important, the fact that the game took place between these two countries which lack diplomatic relations since Turkey closed the Armenian border in 1993 is seen an important first step, to be followed by a game between the national teams of Armenia and Turkey on September 6th.

Although the chances of the Armenian team to win on the September 6 match are rather slim, the win of the youth team has inspired Armenian football fans with renewed confidence.

The game is very promising from a diplomatic perspective as well. Armenian president Serge Sargsian had invited the Turkish president Abdullah Gul to visit Yerevan and watch the game in July. Abdullah Gul has been postponing his decision about accepting or rejecting the invitation. Possible protests in Armenia against Turkish President’s visits are among the reasons for Gul’s hesitation and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun have said they’ll definately stage actions in Yerevan.

At any rate, thousands of Turkish fans are also expected to arrive in Yerevan for the match and the Armenian authorities have already promised to slash visa fees for them. According to some Armenian media reports the Turkish fans have applied to their government asking them to open the Turkey-Armenian border for one day, so they could use the Kars-Gyumri railway to arrive in Armenia and cheer for their team. If true, this might become another significant development in establishing relations between the two neighboring countries.

Levon Aronian (Armenian: Լևոն Արոնյան; born October 6, 1982) is an Armenian chess player. On the April 2008 FIDE list, he had an ELO rating of 2763, making him number six in the world and Armenia’s number one. He was born in Yerevan.

PS: Someone needs to update the Wikipedia entry about Aronian, to include the latest victory.

The Olympic torch will be lit in Beijing on 8th month of year 2008, at 8 seconds, 8 minutes past 8 o’clock of local time – as the figure 8 is considered lucky in China. The motto of the Olympics is – “One world, one dream” and that dream will cost China 44 billion dollars – a record amount to be spent on organization of Olympic games.

The history of independent Armenia has only seen one Olympic champion so far – wrestler Armen Nazaryan won Olympic gold in Atlanta, 1996. Overall Armenia has had 13 Olympic champions and we’ve been the best in wrestling, weightlifting, athletics. Clearly the team sports are not one of our strengths.

The Armenian team this year has 6 weightlifters (Hripsime Khurshudyan, Tigran g. Martirosyan, Gevorg Davtyan, Ara Khachatryan, Tigran V. Martirosyan, Edgar Gevorgyan), 4 boxers (Hovhannes Danielyan, Hrachik Javakhyan, Eduard Hambardzumyan, Andranik Hakobyan), 3 free wrestlers (Martin Berberyan, Suren Markosyan, Harutyun Yenokyan), 6 Greco/Roman wrestlers (Roman Amoyan, Karen Mnatsakanyan, Arman Adikyan, Arsen Julfalakyan, Denis Forov, Yuri Patrikeyev), 2 judoists (Hovhannes Davtyan, Armen Nazaryan), 2 track-and-field athletes (Melik Janyan, Ani Khachikyan), 1 swimmer (Mikayel Koloyan) and 1 shooter (Norayr Bakhtamyan).

On my flight to Moscow on July 31st, I was lucky to be on the same plane with our judo team – the guys were wearing the proud uniform of Armenian Olympics team and were sure of their success. Their coaches, however, were more cautious – the Chineeze team is especially strong they said and they have the mental ability of concentrating for the hour of the match in such a manner, that the results resemble that of using doping means. At any rate, the Armenian team has the high sponsorship of Armenian oligarch, head of Armenian Olympic Committee Gagik Tsarukyan, who has promised money, gifts and honor to Armenian gold winners – along with grave threats to make sure they bring home the Olympic gold. Will this kind of ‘stick and carrot’ policy force the tiny Armenian team bring medals home? We will see soon – shooter Norayr Bakhtamyan, judoist Hovhannes Davtyan (60 kilos) and boxer Andranik Hakobyan (75 kilos) will be first to compete in Beijing on August 9. All we can do now is prey for them and watch the splendid opening ceremony which is due to start soon and will be broadcast on Armenian Public TV. Go Armenians – Stronger, Faster, Higher!!!

Former IBF and IBO flyweight champion, Vic Darchinyan, 29-1, 23 KO’s, has returned to the ring to have his first bout following the dramatic loss of his titles to Filipino Nonito Donaire in July.

In his comeback fight last weekend, the Australia-based Armenian knocked out another Filipino boxer, Frederico Catubay, to capture the IBF and IBO Australasian super flyweight titles in Auburn, Australia, the local media reported.

Vic, ‘The Raging Bull’, Darchinyan dropped Catubay in rounds 7 and 11 before stopping him in the 12th with a knockout.

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Argentinean-Armenian David Nalbandian won Madrid Masters on Sunday having beaten the world’s two strongest players on the way to the title.

First he knocked out Rafael Nadal from Spain in the quarter finals and then beat the World Number One, Roger Federer, from Switzerland, in the final.

The Argentinean came back from a set down, to win the first Master Series title of his career (with the score 1-6, 6-3, 6-3). It is Nalbandian’s first title in more than a year. (Source: Spain Sport News).