While the Pan Armenian Games continue and as Yerevan prepares to host a match between Armenia and Portugal tomorrow, sports seem to be in the news this week. For example, ArmenPress reports that MP, Oligarch and founder of the Prosperous Armenia political party Gagik Tsarukian has met with representatives from the Diaspora in town for the 4th Pan Armenian Games.

Tsarukian said the Games, since their inception in 1999, have been a very good event for young people from Diaspora and Armenia-proper to build close ties.

He urged Diaspora Armenian organizations to work hard for a better and stronger representation in the Games. He said he could not understand why a very small Armenian community of Jerusalem has sent 12 athletes to the Games, while the multi-thousand community in Moscow only 3 people.

Tsarukian also spoke about plans to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games saying he expects some 20-25 athletes of Armenia to travel to China.

He said an Armenian athletes winning a gold medal in Beijing will get a $700,000 reward.

Meanwhile, another visitor to Yerevan for the Games, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Aliabadi signed a memorandum of understanding in the area of sports with Armenia. However, back to the idea of the Games as a way of bringing Armenia and the Diaspora together, a visiting academic casts doubts on whether there is any policy other than the staging of lavish opening events.

In the words of Aspet Kuchikian, the “Armenia-Diaspora” parliamentarian assembly, the All Armenian Games, and other similar meetings are not so effective in practice. In his opinion, no consistent work is carried out for a productive use of the potential of the Diaspora after those measures.

Certainly, given the lack of proper organization and information on what is happening for the games, my experience from the matches I’ve attended so far makes me wonder if the broadcast of the Opening Ceremony via satellite to the Diaspora wasn’t simply the only thing the government really cared about. Still, at least the teams are taking the competition seriously.