Armen Half-Celt

Personally, I thought it was a very noble gesture to make the invitation. I was glad he accepted it too. And to be perfectly honest, I sometimes find it amsuing seeing some Turkish people vritually screaming that Gul was a traitor and so forth. Meanwhile, as far as the Spain game goes Lets say its rare than anyone is that badly outclassed. At least it was not as bad as the other game in our group that day: Bosnia-Herzegovina 7-0 Estonia.

Consiering that we held a team 86 places above us in the rankings until minute 60, I don't think it is too bad. At least it wasn't 3-0 like the games against the last teams we held over an hour were.

To be honest I am a little worried about the response both the home and traveling fans. Turkey has bee known to have fan violence with Greece in the past. (Fortunately not in this decade) and I can only imaigne the mutual dislike it would be worse here. I'd also be interested to see just how many Turkish fans will show up. They have a very pasionate crowd and its not that they need to travel far. But does not FIFA or UEFA have rules about limits on the number of traveling fans in any given game, however? The home fans will be hostile like no other though. Have you guys seen highlights of recent Armenian high profile games? The crowd erupted in thunderous boos everytime Portugal or Poland even pressed into the other half. And we don't have any bad relations with those countires, I can only imagine how bad it will be if Turkey does it. And one thing that I'd be a little scared to see is if one side scores, the last thinng i'd want to see if for FIFA to penalize both countries.

I'm not exactly clear on the paticulars and history of the conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia but I believe (from what I have learned) it is logical to support that The Ossetians deserve the right to self detirmination, much like the people of Artsakh.

I heard about the Armenian President inviting the Turkish one to watch the game with him. I was most eager to hear their response to the invitation.

Christianity, I believe, is largely intertwined with the collective culture of the Armenian people in a general sense. But I see no reason that any convert to Islam would not be considered "Armenian" any longer. I don't consider Islam (as a whole) a threat in the slightest sense.

I know Kharapakh is a Turkic-Persian name. I was talking about Gharapakh. He does know Arabic. I think you guys are making too big a deal of this. I mean I'm perfectly happy to call it Artsakh or whatever but, doesn't the governemnt of the region in question itself call itself "The Republic of Nagorno-Kharapakh"?

So what? You think this situation will stay the same until the Sun burns out? Don't the Azeri state officials say shit like all of Nagorno-Kharapakh/Artsakh must become a part of Azerbejian and then maybe most of Armenia too? That isn't what I said at all. EDIT: Oh and my father always pronounced it "Gharapakh," so it's something that I picked up too. It was years later that I noticed the spelling "Kharapakh." I just assumed for whatever reason it was pronounced with a "Gh." But eventually I understood that apparently Kharapakh was another way of saying it too. I genreally use Gharapakh and Arstakh interchangably. I seem to vaugely recall reading somewhere (possibly even here) that Gharapakh is a Russian variation.

The point I was making is that the purpose of the Buffer Zone is to protect Gharapakh, and therefore will not be needed in a hypothetical stable peacetime.

Why does Azerbejian have parts of Iran? The Azeris minority in Iran are not a conflict scource to my knowledge. Are they?

Well for them I suppose it is. Since when did Ukraine have anything to do with Azerbejian. I never knew about that.

I think Armenia will evnetually have to give the Buffer zone back, if there is to be peace.

To anyone who was unaware, in April of this year, Armenia reached its highest ever Fifa World Ranking in history - 78th place. It's also our current ranking, after a breif drp down to 80th or so. I'm very happy with how we've performed in rencent months. It was the win over Poland during Euro 008 qualifying that shot us up. And I think that it gave us confidence that we can cause upsets. I'm disspointed that we lost to Kazhakistan in the end though, this was our best chance to chock up more than 2 wins in qualifying for a maor tournament. They were so close. Still, onwards and upwards I will hope.

In 1998, I hated the Netherlands' team for depriving me of Argentina vs Brazil in the Semis. This year, I'm soldily supproting them to take the trophy after those two dominating perromences. I think they deserve it.

Oooh sombody remembers me! Wow. I've been up and down. Its been the last couple of years getting adjusted into universtiy life. I'm kinda good, now. I decided to check back over here .

I actually think this one will go ahead. Turns out Armenia's Football Federation was willing to both host Azerberjianis and trevel to Azerbejian. Azerbejian wanted to play in a neutral location and they couldn't agree from that point. Unless their policiy changes by the following year, it seems logical this game will go ahead. Turkey also has a lot more to lose from skipping these matches than the Azeris. Despite the political enemity and hatred between the two countires, we weren't actually at war in the last 20 years. Thats my take on what will likely happen in anycase. I suspect it would be better to play both stadiums without crowds though. Hopefully if it does go through, no team will start brawling with the other.

The (Dutch) coach of Armenia said the game against Azerbaijan will be "special". Were not the the under 21 team or somethin ina simialr situation. i really can't see either team going to play away, if they do play at all

after an unforutante draw and a not so good result at the World Cup Draw...i was looking forward to it. to my shame i lost touch with football for a while. but the qualifying draw was 2 days ago.... and apparently Armenia has been drawn with Azerbaijan... I'm curois what is the governments' positionS? this could get very ugly... the other groups look interestin

oh my. That is certianly a good reflection of sporting behavior.

oh dear...ah well.

Nalbandian beat Federer now? that is pretty cool then. well done.

I was at the UAE game and they played pretty well, it was only 1-0 at half time, and they were apparently reduced to 10 men. THey certianly played better than Suadi did against Germany back at the world cup in '02, i think at least. Heh, i was close to Ronaldinho that day.

Actually its interesting, one of my friends said the Tatars were a number of turkic tirbesmen inhabiting Crimea leftover from the Ottoman Empire during the 18th and 18th century. Which i believe is ture. However, the Tatars are also a tribe of of Trukic or Mongol people who fueded with Ghengis Khan prior to his imperial conquest. Apparently he extirminated nearly all of them, since they were the people who had killed his father. I'm unsure if the two peoples are directly related.

ya i saw the matchcast of that game, kinda funny, but say what you want about their genocide denying government sometimes they have some tehcnically entertaining football players. Though the crowds have a tendancy to riot a lot when they arn't happy.

my father told me there was one game where Bayern Munich was playing Ararat in soime gmae somewhere and the score ened at a drawn after 90 minutes but the referee refused to blow the whsitle until Munich had scored...after 16 minutes or somethin btw we beat Andorra in the last world cup qualifying place to gain "Second Last Place" in the group we were in....yay our ranking improved slightly too... now up- to 109th