As I’ve just walked in the door after picking up my accreditation for the 4th Pan-Armenian Games due to start tomorrow in Garni and Yerevan, it’s probably worth posting about the event. Although the official site of the games, which will involve around 2,500 competitors from 26 countries, has not been updated for this year’s event, I’m at least impressed to see that Wikipedia has an interesting page detailing its history.

The idea of holding a Pan-Armenians Games was first thought by Soviet diplomat Ashot Melik-Shahnazaryan. He first thought of the idea of organizing universal games for all Armenians while he was on a business trip in 1965 to Brazzaville, Congo, that was getting ready to participate in the first Pan-African Games. But because Armenia was a Soviet republic and that such an idea was considered by Moscow to be nationalistic, Shahnazaryan had to wait until Armenia attained independence to try and put forth his brainchild.

In 1995, Ashot Melik-Shahnazaryan for the first time publicly announced his intentions to create the Pan-Armenians Games while he was in Paris as a guest for World Games of AGBU. He quickly gained the support of the Armenian diaspora with whom he did not have any contact during Soviet times. The idea of organizing sporting events for all Armenians and the motto of the future World Committee “Unity through Sport” was highly supported by representatives of Homenetmen, AGBU and Homenmen in diasporan cities such as Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Beirut, Paris and many others.

During the founding meeting on April 30, 1997 in Yerevan, World Committee of Pan-Armenian Games (WCPAG) was created, with the help of traditional Armenian unions of the Diaspora and the Iranian-Armenian cultural-sport organization “Ararat”. Representatives of state and public organizations of Armenia, NKR and also Armenian communities from Iran, Argentina, Turkey, Australia, Germany, Canada, Cyprus, France and other countries became members. Ashot Melik-Shahnazaryan was elected the first president of WCPAG. He also became the creator of the emblem, cup, medals, almost all the symbols of the organization and also the official anthem and the farewell song of the games.

Today, the WCPAG is a non-governmental, international organization that collaborates with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), UNESCO, the Council of Europe and other international sport units and contributes in developing sport in Armenia. The current president is Vartan Oskanian, foreign minister of the republic of Armenia.

A kind of Armenian Olympics, ArmeniaNow has a photo of the official mascot of this year’s games — something which no major sporting event anywhere in the world can do without. There will also be a “Miss Games” competition which might not be so common, but which will at least give us all some eye candy to photograph if the basketball, football, mini-football, volleyball, athletics, tennis, table tennis, chess, swimming and badminton isn’t enough.

I’ll be photographing and writing on the games for EurasiaNet and a photo story which should go out at the end of next week. There will also be coverage and photos posted on this blog as the event gets underway, and I’m always looking for any media outlets out there which might be interested in a story or photos. Contact me via the email address listed in the right hand column.

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered an Armenian Sport blog which will also probably have more coverage of the games as they progress next week.