Young Armenian wrestlers snatch 7 medals at int’l tournament

February 6, 2018 By administrator

Young Armenian wrestlers

Young Armenian freestyle wrestlers have won four gold, two silver and a bronze medals at an international tournament in Moldova.

In particular, Razmik Papikyan (57kg weight class), Vazgen Tevanyan (61kg), Arman Andreasyan (70kg) and Davit Gevorgyan (74 pg) claimed the champion’s title in their respective categories.

Gegham Galstyan (65kg) and Hovhannes Maghakyan (125kg), meanwhile, snatched a silver medal each, while Arman Avagyan (79kg) won bronze.

156 young wrestlers from Armenia, Ukraine, Germany, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Macedonia and Romania participated in the tournament.

Young Armenian cousins from Voskepar village happy to join the army

July 25, 2017 By administrator

Rafik Beglaryan, a young man from Armenia’s bordering village Voskepar, together with his cousin Armen Beglaryan are getting ready to begin their military service in the Armenian Armed Forces, with the lottery determining Artsakh as the place of their service.

“It will be great if we serve in the same military unit. We would cope with the [military] service easier together,” Rafik Beglaryan said in an interview with Panorama.am.

18-year old Rafik Beglaryan is a karate competitor, who currently studies at Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture. The future soldier has positive attitude towards the military service, trying not to focus on negative aspects.

Rafik is not concerned with the fact that he might serve in the frontline.

“We are well aware what it means to defend a border. We are not afraid of shootings,” he says, adding that it would certainly be better if the boys from the bordering villages of Tavush Province served in the same province.

Rafik’s cousin Armen Beglaryan is studying at National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia. Armen hopes to hold his service with his cousin as well, adding that they will always be mentally connected even when serving in different military units.

Armen also does not find it difficult to service in the frontline.

“We are village boys and will easily engage in the service. In addition to that, we have lived amid constant shootings throughout our entire lives, we are used to it. On the contrary, it is a little bit unusual when they [Azerbaijani forces] do not fire shots,” Armen jokes, adding that all the houses in Voskepar villages face the border with Azerbaijan.

The brothers wish the conscripts a safe and peaceful service.

Vahan Bichakhchyan reminds of young Wayne Rooney: The Guardian (video)

October 5, 2016 By administrator

The Guardian on Wednesday, October 5 unveiled a series identifying some of the best young players born in 1999. Aming them is Armenian footballer, attacking midfielder currently playing for FC Shirak Vahan Bichakhchyan who is considered by some to be as talented as his countryman Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Mkhitaryan captains the Armenian national team and was recently transferred from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United.

“Bichakhchyan was handed his senior debut at the age of 16 for Shirak. He came on as a substitute in the Europa League first qualifying round second leg against Georgia’s Dila Gori and scored a screamer to help the team progress to the next stage. The goal made him the youngest Armenian to score in Europe,” The Guardian says.

“Used mainly as right winger, his style is similar to Kevin De Bruyne’s: he has a good eye for goal and is always ready to take on opponents one-on-one, also reminding observers of a young Wayne Rooney.”

Bichakhchyan had, by mid-September, scored two goals and provided one assist in eight matches in this debut season for Shirak and had precisely the same stats for Armenia Under-19s after being considered too good for the Under-17s.

Young Armenians grateful for Armenian Genocide resolution

June 2, 2016 By administrator

Young people have gathered in front of the German Embassy in Armenia to show their gratitude for the Armenian Genocide resolution the German Bundestag has passed today.

The young people are holding posters reading “danke schön” in their hands. They say they hope that the Bundestag members’ unanimous vote for the Armenian Genocide resolution will encourage other states to adopt similar resolutions denouncing the Armenian Genocide.

Young Activists Electrify Armenia: Lessons Learned. #ElectricYerevan

July 1, 2015 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

When a group of young Armenians spontaneously gathered in Yerevan’s Liberty Square 10 days ago to challenge the planned increase of electricity rates, no one expected their protest to reverberate around the world.

To everyone’s surprise, the small gathering mushroomed into several thousand mostly young people who marched to the Capital City’s major thoroughfare, the Baghramyan Avenue, where the Presidential Palace, the Parliament, and the Constitutional Court are located, and staged an overnight sit-in. The protests quickly spread to major towns and cities throughout Armenia.

Since the demonstrators refused to vacate the Avenue, the police dispersed them with water cannons, injuring a dozen protesters and arresting 237 others. The police also detained several journalists, damaging or confiscating their cameras and tape recorders.

As images of these confrontations were disseminated through social media and various websites, several thousand more protesters showed up the next day, making crowd control practically impossible. At the time of writing this column — the evening of June 29 — demonstrators were still occupying portions of Baghramyan Avenue.

Who are these young men and women and what do they want? They are not affiliated with any political parties or foreign powers, contrary to baseless accusations, and have no agenda other than demanding that the Armenian government rescind the 17% increase in the cost of electricity, effective August 1. These activists believe that they are legally and morally justified to block city streets because their protest is peaceful and spontaneous! They have named their movement “No to Plunder.”

The authorities made several attempts to persuade these young people to abandon their protest. When President Serzh Sargsyan proposed to meet with them, the protesters declined the request demanding that the meeting be televised live to the public. The government’s offer to subsidize the higher cost of electricity by providing a corresponding increase in aid to over 100,000 destitute families was also rejected. Finally, the President’s decision to freeze the rate increase until an international auditing company reviews the financial records of the Energy Networks of Armenia, a subsidiary of a Russian company, to see if the new rate is warranted, was also turned down.

The first break in the tense standoff came last Sunday night when the protest organizers accepted the police offer and moved back to Liberty Square to avoid another bloody confrontation. They announced on Monday night that they are ending their protest and will decide their next move shortly. Most demonstrators, however, refused to follow the lead of the organizers, spending another night in the middle of Baghramyan Avenue, chanting: “We are the masters of our country.”

This new generation of men and women are disenchanted with both the authorities and the political opposition. However, rather than giving up and leaving the country like so many others, the protest organizers took to the streets to defend the people’s rights. These activists showed that although they have no power, no wealth, and no official position, they are capable of rising to the occasion when necessary and rally the masses around them, commanding the grudging respect of the authorities! One may disagree with the protesters’ tactics, but cannot help but admire their sincerity and commitment to the welfare of their fellow Armenians!

There are three important lessons to be learned from these recent developments:

The future of Armenia will be in good hands as long as there are young people in the upcoming generation like those who appeared spontaneously last week in the streets of Yerevan;

Opposition political parties in Armenia have little chance of assuming power anytime soon, unless they completely overhaul their policies, attract bright, committed and resourceful young men and women to their ranks, and allow them to rise to positions of leadership;

The people of Armenia have had a deep-seated distrust of all successive governments before and since independence. The leaders in power are facing far greater problems than the price of electricity. It is an existential imperative for Armenia to establish a just and democratic society in which the citizenry can live in dignity, prosperity and peace. Armenians would not need to protest in the streets of Yerevan if there are effective mechanisms that people can trust to defend their basic civil rights and secure their economic well-being.

Turkish young historian: Turkish state afraid of Armenian Genocide recognition because of the day of reckoning

March 10, 2015 By administrator

Turkish young historian Mehmet Polatel

Yerevan, February 11, Armenpress Turkey’s decision to declare the day of 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide as the day of commemoration of the battle of Gallipoli, which aims to change the topic of International discussion, is nothing else, but a tool of denialist policy. Turkish young historian Mehmet Polatel stated this in conversation with “Armenpress”. Also,the young historian noted that this policy of the Turkish government is “unacceptable for him and other Turkish intellectuals”. The Turkish scientist arrived in Armenia to deliver a lecture titled “The confiscation of the Armenian Property during the genocide and after it”. Among other things, Mehmet Polatel underscored: “One of the reason of the Genocide denial is the issue of returning the confiscated properties. it’s characteristic not only for the state thinking, but the common people, the Armenian will come and take their belongings away. that’s why the Turkish society is also is also against the recognition.”

Samuel Sevian: Young Armenian-American Grandmaster Rises to the Top

December 16, 2014 By administrator

by Christopher Atamian, Co-authored by Haykaram Nahapetyan, Report huffingtonpost.com

Bobby Fisher non-withstanding, chess has never been a huge sporting phenomenon in the Unites States. In the small Republic of Armenia, it is a religion. This country of less than 3 million has given the world two World Chess champions: Tigran Petrossian and Gary Kasparov, though Kasparov is half Jewish and was born in Azerbaijan. Armenians have been moving around the world, forming a global diaspora of talented business people, artists and scientists ever since the fall of the medieval city of Ani in 1045. Now it seems that chess players are its latest exports. Some time in the near future, Armenians may once again make it to a world chess championship final and find themselves facing the United States — which also has a fine tradition in the sport — and one of their very own, in the person of a slightly older and perhaps unbeatable Samuel Sevian.

Sevian, now all of 14 years old, is Armenian-American and the son of an Armenian immigrant to the United States, Armen Sevian. He started playing chess when he was only five and completed all GM qualification standards by the age of 13. Throughout the course of his chess career he’s bested several previous all-time American records. Sevian became the youngest expert in USCF history at age eight, youngest National Master at nine and the youngest ever participant at a U.S. Chess Championship when he was only 12. Samuel also won the World Youth Under-12 Championships in Slovenia. Last November Sevian crossed the 2500 FIDE rating mark, which is the norm for becoming a grandmaster. In doing so Samuel became the youngest GM in American history — besting the previous age record by almost a year. That was held by GM Ray Robson who earned that honor in 2009, a couple of weeks before his 15th birthday. That means Sevian is the sixth-youngest Grandmaster in the world.

In 2014, after subsequently completing all three GM norms at the Foxwoods Open, Saint Louis GM Invitational and Washington International, Sevian became the youngest American ever to have all the GM norm requirements fulfilled at age 13. “If he gets the points he needs before his birthday on December 26, Sevian will become just the seventh player in the world to become a grandmaster before turning 14,” the New York Times reported earlier this year.

Sevian was born in Corning, New York and currently lives in South Bridge, Massachusetts. His father Armen Sevian, a laser physicist who came to the U.S. from Armenia for his Ph.D. studies in 1996, taught his son his first chess moves and coached him throughout the years. An avid chess player himself, Armen credits his first Chess teacher — another chess master Henrich Kasparyan — for instilling a love for the game in him at a young age as well.

Armenia is a small land-locked country located North of Iran in the Caucasus, approximately the size of the state of Maryland. Despite its small size, Armenia has won three out of the five world chess Olympiads since 2006 — as well as the 2011 world championship. Historians say that chess was brought to Armenia from India around the 9th century. In fact as late as the mid-20th century, certain Armenian rural settlements still played the original version of chess known as chatrak , a historical tradition that has apparently lasted over 11 centuries. According to California-based Armenian-American GM and U.S. national female team coach Melikset Khachiyan: “Armenians are generally good at intellectual games.” Khachiyan also pointed out that “Tigran Petrossian’s victory back in the 1960s during Soviet times was a huge psychological boom for our nation.” In 2011, Armenia made chess part of the regular school curriculum, a move that has since been emulated by countries such as Hungary and the Ukraine.

Sevian is currently ranked 1st in the Under-14 in both the United States and in world and ranks 35th among all U.S. active chess players. In a brief phone conversation, the young Samuel stated that although he was happy with his accomplishment, he had even bigger plans for the future. America’s youngest GM is already preparing for a major international tournament scheduled for January in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Among Samuel’s immediate goals is raising his game to a new level, maybe hitting 2600 rating mark in the coming year. It seems that for Sevian, the sky’s the limit.