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The Armenian U19 team scored the first point in the second group of the 2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round, ending the match against Romania 1-1.
Despite the fact that the Romanian team played almost the whole second half with 10 players, our players failed to take advantage of it.
KARS—The 17th century Armenian Cathedral of Mren, in Kars, has been included in the World Monuments Fund’s 2014 World Monuments Watch.
The Cathedral of Mren is a 7th-century Armenian Church, located in the early medieval town of the same name, now in the Kars region of Turkey, near the border with Armenia, about 1.5 km west of the Akhurian River. The church of Mren is a domed triple-nave basilica.
The 2014 Watch features 67 sites in 41 countries and territories, dating from prehistory to the twentieth century. It includes both the famous Venice, Italy, and the little-known Pokfulam Village, Hong Kong, China; the urban Yangon Historic Center, Myanmar, and the remote Gran Pajatén, in Peru; the ancient Irrigated Terraces of Battir, in the Palestinian Territories, and the modern Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, in St. Louis, Missouri.
The 2014 list reflects a number of distinct preservation challenges, including conflict and disaster, lack of resources, development pressures (urban, rural, tourism), and loss of cultural traditions. While these are longstanding issues, their persistence is an ever-growing cause for concern.
The 2014 Watch serves as a call to action, bringing the fragility of the sites and the dangers they face to international attention. It also identifies opportunities for local communities to work together with the larger preservation community, government organizations, corporate sponsors, and others to help ensure their future. For some sites, inclusion on the Watch presents a hope for their survival.
October 10, 2013 – 15:41 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – One needn’t go far to discover those responsible for Armenia-related falsifications – with Turkey as the mastermind Azerbaijan 
is only following the suit.
Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying at the AKP faction meeting, “we were the ones to establish the church on Akhtamar Island, as well as Tarsus Church and Sumela Monastery.”
The statement needs no further comments, considering no monument of Armenian architecture in Turkey carries any mention of Armenians. The Fortress of Van boasts the portrait of Ataturk: local boys who learnt a few words in English, announce him the founder of Van. Asked about the date of Ataturk’s birth or the fortress foundation, the boys seem to have no clue.
There’s no mention anywhere that Smbat Bagratuni, the founder of Ani, was Armenian. It’s merely marked as a monument of … Ottoman architecture. It’s hard to believe Erdogan is unaware who built Kars, Erzurum, Bayazet and other cities. As we repeatedly mentioned, appropriation of another nation’s culture is natural for nomads unable of creating their own, while destruction of another nation’s creations leads to degradation.
Here’s a piece for information especially for Erdogan: Van-located Armenian church of St. Cross was builtt by King Gagik Artsruni in 925-921. It was restored and opened to visitors, with liturgies allowed starting from 2010. Seems like the survivors of the Armenian Genocide were supposed to thank the Turkish government for restoration of the Akhtamar church as well as St Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir. Yet, after Erdogan’s statements his “democratcy package” is worth nothing.
Turks still have a lot to appropriate: Greek, Assyrian, antique monuments which by the evil will of fate are now on the territory of modern Turkey, with Troy, Mycenaean Greece culture, Cilician Kingdom and the heritage of Ancient Armenian kings, mountain of Ararat to be soon called Ottoman. So it’s no surprise Azerbaijan’s official historiography refuses to recognize the aboriginality of Armenians.
One cannot but feel sorry for Turkish and Azeri “historians” – they need to invent their history which- and we can’t stress this enough- never ends well.
Karine Ter-Sahakian/ PanARMENIAN.Net
October 09, 2013 | 16:22
YEREVAN. – The members of “Let’s liberate monument from an oligarch” initiative have reached the Closed Market
The demonstrators calling to boycott “Yerevan City” supermarket chain belonging to MP Samvel Aleksanyan gathered on the left. Aleksanyan’s supporters are standing on the right with police and journalists between the rows.
Those supporting Aleksanyan are chanting “Go away”, “You are enemies” slogans.
A group of police officers headed by deputy chief of police Valery Osipyan are trying to resist Aleksanyan’s “people” who are making attempts to get through the police line.
Earlier, speaking during the meeting in Mashtots Park, the activists did not rule out the possibility of clashes.
Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am
October 10, 2013 | 15:25
YEREVAN. – Armenia has been and remains an important partner for EU, Poland’s Ambassador Zdzisław Raczyński said.
The diplomat noted that initialing of the Association Agreement at this stage is impossible given the decision to join Customs Union. Therefore, the sides should seek other platforms for cooperation.
Ambassador Raczyński believes the decision on Customs Union has been economically calculated beforehand.
“I do not know what benefits Armenia will get from joining Customs Union, but I believe tat the decision was balanced and calculated,” he emphasized.
According to assessment of Polish experts, the Association Agreement would have brought Armenia annual income of €150 million, he said.
Ambassador said it is better not to jump to a conclusion and wait until Armenia joins the Customs Union. According to him, last year GDP growth was 7%. If the next year’s growth reaches 9.5%, this would mean that joining Customs Union is profitable.
October 09, 2013
Its name sounds impressive: the Independent American Center of Political Monitoring.
So does the umbrella organization it says it is a part of: the International Expert Center for Electoral Systems, or ICES.
Along with official observers from the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other international bodies, members of the group were in Azerbaijan this week to observe the October 9 presidential election.
But ask any Azerbaijan-watcher or journalist outside of pro-government media who they are and nobody seems to know for sure.
Some have never heard of the organization. Others suspect that they’re paid by Baku or government proxies to give a favorable assessment of the election’s conduct. Such an assessment would be a useful counterargument against allegations of massive fraud by the country’s political opposition.
According to its barebones website, the Independent American Center of Political Monitoring is based in the small city of Broken Arrow in the central U.S. state of Oklahoma. It says it is a non-profit founded in 2005 to monitor elections in the former Soviet Union.
Most of its members are listed simply as “experts,” with an accompanying listing of elections they say they’ve monitored, but little additional detail.
The organization describes itself in grammatically incorrect English as “a young and influential organization that has earned the trust and respect of political many scientists and electorate of North America and the rest of the world.”
It also pledges to maintain impartiality and objectivity in offering a “comprehensive” report after elections it monitors. Links to previous election-monitoring reports from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and other former Soviet nations lead to empty pages.
Under the “press release” section are headlines like, “Obama has less leverage than you think,” and “Obama not being a [president] of all Americans.”
The website offers no information about its funding. Calls and emails to the organization inquiring about its source of funds were not returned.
In the hours after polls closed, Azerbaijan’s pro-government APA news agency reported that “the U.S. group of observers” found “free activity” at polling stations.
The article says former U.S. Congressman Solomon Ortiz (Democrat-Texas) represented the delegation of “former congressmen and journalists” in declaring the election “transparent and free.”
More well-known monitors had yet to release their assessments.
On the eve of Wednesday’s poll, the American Center’s umbrella organization, the International Expert Center for Electoral Systems (ICES), held a press conference in the Azerbaijani capital.
There, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service asked Anna Curdova, a former member of the Czech parliament and an ICES election observer, for details on the organization’s funding.
She identified an NGO that she said is based in Ukraine:
RFE/RL: “An ethical question: who is funding your visit and how did you get here?”
Curdova: “I have told you already — we are an NGO that deals with various projects. Our visit is funded out of the income we generate from other activities we engage in at times when no elections take place.”
RFE/RL: “But who, in particular, or what organization [pays you]?”
Curdova: “I’ve already told you — we are called ‘For Just Elections.'”
RFE/RL: “Meaning that you are funding your own visit here?”
Curdova: “Yes, yes. Well, not myself personally, but my organization is. ‘For Just Elections’ –that’s what it’s called.”
Election-observer Michael Hohendahl, a lawyer from Germany, also told RFE/RL that his work was funded by the NGO.
Hohendahl was previously quoted by Interfax-Ukraine as praising the conduct of Ukraine’s 2012 parliamentary elections, a contest that Western observers described as highly flawed.
Both Curdova and Hohendahl expressed surprise when RFE/RL mentioned alleged rights abuses under the government of President Ilham Aliyev.
The ICES website says the organization is registered in the Netherlands. It also says the organization is a signatory to the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which requires the disclosure of funding sources. The website does not, however, mention the “For Just Elections” NGO or any funding information.
Those claiming that the shadowy observer groups may be funded by Azerbaijani government interests also point to a U.S. company whose affiliation is more transparent.
Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates, led by the longtime Republican strategist of the same name, has released the results of an exit poll it conducted after Wednesday’s vote.
The results show incumbent President Ilham Aliyev with nearly 83 percent of the vote and opposition candidate Camil Hasanli with just under 9 percent.
The pro-government APA news agency published the result — and said it had also ordered the exit poll.
Posted by John Duerden
AMAZING Goal Scored By Andranik Teymourian For Esteghla Iran vs Buriram Thailand – 2013 AFC Champions League.
Andranik Teymourian of Iran celebrates qualifying for the FIFA World Cup.
There was the ball bouncing in the penalty area, there was a blur streaking past surprised defenders and suddenly, there was Andranik Teymourian, pony-tail swaying and old school wristbands flying. “Ando” he shouted by way of warning and claim, his nickname just one legacy of his days in England, and he was there and there was the ball, now nestling in the back of the net. His fellow Iranians clapped and the training session restarted — whatever the situation, wherever the location, the midfielder puts heart and soul into it.
• Iran book World Cup 2014 spot
From Bolton to Barnsley to Brazil and then who can say? Teymourian helped Iran on a roller-coaster ride through qualification for the 2014 World Cup and is all set for the festival of football next summer and the challenge of taking Team Melli to the Promised Land. This is a country with a rich and ancient history, but reaching the knockout stage is something it has never done.”It was a great experience and I learned a lot and I am hungry to experience it again. I really hope to stay in the team and go to Brazil. In Iran, we don’t have many players who have the experience of two World Cups and the motivation for me to play for the national team at the 2014 World Cup is very big. The World Cup is the highest level of football and it is a great opportunity to compare yourself to the best players and the best teams in the world. It is a challenge that every player wants.”
There are reasons to be cheerful. This Iranian team maybe does not have the flair or creativity or even the swagger of the 2006 vintage and preparations are not exactly going smoothly but it is solid, organized and well-drilled under former Real Madrid and Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz. Team Melli will be tough opposition next summer.
“We will have to wait and see what happens in the draw but all of the players are talking about which teams they want to play,” he smiled. “For me, it is Spain. I would love to play against Spain. It would be a wonderful challenge.”
On and off the pitch, Andranik Teymourian has never shirked one of those.
Rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra are pictured waving their brigade flag. As many as 500 Turks have been recruited since al-Nusra was formed in 
January 2012. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network)
BY: Jamie Dettmer October 08, 2013
Last month the U.S. and Turkey agreed to create a $200 million dollar fund to help local organizations develop programs to counter violent extremism among young people in places like Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. Now some are warning the threat might be closer to home because of a surge in recruitment of young Turks by al-Qaida affiliates.
Al-Qaida affiliates in Syria such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra are making headway in persuading Turkish Sunnis to cross the border into Syria for jihad, Turkish officials acknowledge.
Turkish officials said that jihadists have recruited several hundred young Turks from the southeast of the country to fight in the civil war raging next door. And independent analysts estimate that as many as 500 Turks have been recruited since al-Nusra was formed in January 2012. The larger Iraqi affiliate ISIS, which became active in Syria earlier this year, is also actively seeking Turkish recruits.
Syrian Kurds say Turkey is responsible
Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim said the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP government are partly responsible for the jihadist success, arguing that Ankara has not done enough to combat jihadists using Turkey as a logistical base and has in effect colluded with them by allowing al-Nusra fighters safe passage. Jihadists and Syrian Kurds have been engaged in heavy fighting in recent weeks in competition for control of Syrian territory.
Muslim is a co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), an offshoot of the PKK, a separatist Kurdish group in Turkey. He alleged that Turkish authorities are willing to turn a blind-eye to the jihadists in Syria while they fight Kurds, arguing that Ankara hasn’t done enough to block Gulf-supplied weapons earmarked for the Western-backed Free Syrian Army from falling into jihadist hands. He also said International aid agencies are being prevented from sending relief supplies across the border to Kurdish villages in northern Syria.
“Not a single assistance convoy crossed to our side in one month. Our people are living under difficult war conditions. We have acute shortages of electricity, water, fuel and medicines. There is an embargo against us,” he told Turkey’s Taraf newspaper.
In recent weeks, as fighting has intensified between jihadists and Kurds in northern Syria, observers said wounded al-Nusra fighters have been transported by Turkish ambulances to hospitals in Urfa.
But Turkey’s Interior Minister Muammer Guler denied there has been any assistance offered to jihadists along the border. According to Guler in an October 4 press release, 129 suspected terrorists have been arrested in the past year. But the interior minister did not offer a breakdown of the allegiances of those detained.
In September, Turkish prosecutors indicted six jihadists – five of them Turks – for trying to acquire chemicals with the intent to produce the nerve agent Sarin. The suspects — all al-Nusra members — tried to secure two government-regulated military-grade chemical substances, according to the allegations contained in a 132-page federal indictment.
Southeast Turkey emerges as a recruitment magnet
Turkey’s Radikal newspaper said a lengthy investigation it carried out suggests 200 young Turks have been recruited alone from Adiyaman, a town in the southeast of the country. A father of twin sons who had been recruited by al-Nusra told the newspaper that the radicalization process had taken about a year and that his sons disappeared on September 2.
After their disappearance, he tracked his sons down to the Syrian city of Aleppo. “I went to Aleppo with a guide and toured six camps in four days. There were young men from Adiyaman, Bitlis and Bingol in the camps. I found both my sons in a camp in Aleppo. When I told the gang leader that I had come to take them back, he replied: the boys are fighting for jihad here. Are you an infidel, since you are trying to stop them from jihad?”
The recruitment process back in Turkey sidetracks local mosques, presumably as a precaution against possible Turkish police surveillance. Likely recruits are encouraged to join small prayer groups where videos are shown of the fighting in Syria. Adiyaman isn’t the only town that is seeing high levels of recruitment. A Turkish police source –who asked not to be identified – said there is jihadist recruitment activity in Urfa and Diyarbakir. Once persuaded to join up Turkish recruits undergo 45 days of basic military training before joining a fighting unit, he said.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, global jihadist groups had only limited success in recruiting in Turkey. In 2007, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Jihad Union launched a Turkish-language website. Several Turks have been arrested in the past in foiled bomb plots in Europe. And there have been a handful of Turkish suicide bombers, the most notable Cüneyt Çiftçi, who attacked a NATO base in Afghanistan in March 2008, killing several Western soldiers.
But now after nearly three years of civil war in Syria and growing numbers of young radicalized Turks joining the fight fears are growing that radicalization will spread, and that one day young Turkish jihadists may bring the war home with devastating consequences.
Speaker of Armenian National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan met with Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 129th Assembly of Inter-
Parliamentary Union (IPU), Armenian parliament’s press service reports.
Both Abrahamyan and Larijani stated that Armenian-Iranian relations are at a high level and continue to develop in an atmosphere of mutual trust. They stressed the importance of the activities of friendship groups between the two parliaments which contribute to the expansion of inter-parliamentary ties. The two parties also highlighted the need to further deepen the economic relations.
Referring to regional issues, the parliament speakers of Armenia and Iran stressed that in the interests of regional security and stability, conflicts should be resolved through peaceful negotiations.
BAKU—Harassment, intimidation, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, fabricated charges and unfair trials are all part of the arsenal the Azerbaijani authorities are employing in a downward spiral of oppression in the run up to the October 9, 2013, presidential elections, said Amnesty International.
“With new arrests of civil society activists reported almost daily, it’s hard to keep up with the sheer number and the speed at which dissenters are being persecuted at the moment,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Director. “The persecution is so widespread and frequent it’s difficult to assess just how bad the current situation really is.”
“We have already adopted no fewer than 14 people as prisoners of conscience. These people are currently behind bars solely for expressing their views or taking peaceful action.”
In its new report published today, “Downward Spiral: Continuing Crackdown on Freedoms in Azerbaijan,” the organization documents and analyses how the government has been intimidating and silencing critics ever since the widespread protests in March and April 2011.
The report documents how the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the media, critical and pro-democracy groups, and opposition parties have come under attack
• Independent media is silenced by the refusal of broadcasting licenses, the imposition of heavy fines for alleged defamation, and the harassment and occasional beating of journalists.
• NGOs are suffocating under excessive administrative regulation and unclear requirements which the authorities use arbitrarily to deny them registration, limiting their ability to secure funding.
• Civil society activists, opposition politicians and independent journalists are regularly targeted with arbitrary arrests and prosecutions on fabricated charges, especially in the run-up to the elections.
“This wholesale crackdown calls into question the value of holding an election. People must be free to form their opinion and share it with others; be free to protest when they see their rights violated, and be free to do so jointly with others. None of this is allowed in Azerbaijan, and those who dare, pay a heavy price with their personal safety and freedom. This must stop, said John Dalhuisen. “The government of Azerbaijan must immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.”
Azerbaijan is a party to all key human rights treaties which protect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, amongst other fundamental human rights. It is also a member of the Council of Europe, and an important trading partner for many of its members.
However, its international partners appear to have little traction. Concerns voiced by Azerbaijan’s international partners over the “continued pressure” on activists, civil society and independent media have been rejected by the Azerbaijani authorities.
“Azerbaijan should put an end to the harassment and suppression of civil society and independent media. The international community must do everything in its power to ensure that the government of Azerbaijan fully respects and adheres to its obligations under international law,” said John Dalhuisen.