THE WORK OF COALITION ASSESSED AS PRODUCTIVE

-How do you assess the outgoing political year?

-In political terms, the year in general can be regarded as calm, despite some political activity. In economic terms, the year was a little tenser. It was obvious impact of the global financial crisis. For this reason, throughout the year were important in particular activities aimed at the post-crisis rehabilitation. But I would like to talk more about our sporting achievements.
In the sporting sense year for us can be considered one of the most successful years. Our athletes have successfully acted in major sports disciplines, and in this year also returned home with a rich collection of medals. One of the important commemorative events in the past year was 20 years of NOCA. The main ideology of the Olympic movement is to spread among the masses Sport and the Olympic ideas. In the 2010 in our country on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of NOCA were plenty of sports activities, which involved thousands of young people. In November the anniversary was celebrated with great chic. The leaders and representatives of the Olympic committees from about 30 countries of the world came to congratulate us. Hear about the country one, come and see for yourself is another. All foreigners coming to Armenia and see the warm attitude and hospitality of our people change their attitude towards us. Today the sport has become one of the areas to raise awareness about our nation in the world. I am happy that our athletes have performed brilliantly in this important mission, a great pride when at the world and European championships tricolor raised and anthem of our country heard. It is truly a joy, Armenian sports fans expects only victories from our competitors. Like important acquisition of our work last year, I would note the return of people to the sport. Nothing can compare with those feelings that were in the entire nation from victory of Tigran Martirosyan, who become the world champion in Turkey, holding high the country’s sporting honor. Or win of Nazik Avdalyan in the 2009. We finally got a taste of victory, thanks to our athletes in different parts of the world Armenian flag rises up and anthem played. Our people today in separate sports are just waiting for victories of our athletes. This is positive acquisition about which is needed to say. Sport in our country is one of those areas where we can see the conspicuous development and progress. Our task, as President of the Olympic committee is to maintain this development and progress and develop further.

GAGIK TSARUKYAN: “ARMENIAN NATION IS ONE OF THE UNIQUE NATIONS, WHICH IS REALLY PROUD OF ITS VALUES”

The interview of Gagik Tsarukyan to “Elite Life” Magazine

- Mr. Tsarukyan, having all you have today, can you say that you consider yourself a happy man?

- Yes, I am happy, I have considerable property which I earned owing to my hard work. I have healthy and well-to-do large family which I am very devoted to. I do everything for them, and my every acquisition in business sphere is for their stable future.

- Which of your business do you consider the most important?

- All my businesses are very important for me, although I must confess that my pride is Yerevan “Ararat” brandy-wine-vodka factory. I have huge plans connected with this business.  Yerevan “Ararat” brandy-wine-vodka factory has a great significance for me as it is the most everlasting and valuable.  And, saying this, I don’t mean the income I get from that business. In fact that factory first of all gave me a chance to immortalize my family’s name in our history.  The owners and founders of this factory were such authoritative people that being their assignee can only be a pride for me.

- What do you think which are the most important values for Armenians?

- Armenian nation is one of the unique nations, which is really proud of its values. I would separate Ararat Mountain and Armenian cognac from these values. Yes, it is true, we have lost Ararat Mountain, but I assure that we will bring it back one day. It is very sad for me when my youngest son asks me, “Father, if Ararat Mountain is ours, then why can’t we climb on it?” I don’t know what to answer, but I truly hope, that one day I will have the answer to my son’s question.

- If you had a chance to buy Ararat Mountain, which part of your property would you be ready to provide for that?

- The whole. Yes, I will certainly give my whole property, as I am sure, that by this step I will carry out the biggest dream of me and of my nation. I will do everything in order to make Ararat Mountain, lost years before, again ours.

- In your opinion is the aggressive politics always justified in business? Are you mainly guided by that principle?

- I don’t know what you mean by saying aggressive politics. Characterizing myself, I can definitely say that I orientate very fast in many questions that are of interest to me and I am always certain in my decisions. Perhaps, my resolution in business-steps makes an impression of aggressive politics. In fact it is called risk but certainly not aggressiveness. Generally, if you approach to any work with a feeling of fear you will never have success. That is to say, in case of not going forward towards anything by your certain steps, you will never have success, you will just have to survive somehow.   I bought Yerevan “Ararat” brandy-wine-vodka factory when it was already ruined long ago. I restored and enlarged it, chose the right strategy and the factory began its systematic work.  The result is obvious today, and you can be sure of that. Practically  I have done risky steps from the very beginning.

- What was of interest to you in politics?

- My parents have always been against my decision of getting involved in politics, but I am sure that being in politics I will be able to do more for my nation than being just a successful businessman. And today I am trying to assist people of my community with everything that is within my power.

- How do you evaluate the participation of our athletes in Olympic Games?

- You know yourselves the conditions of our sport schools in the past. Nobody has been seriously concerned about these schools for many years, there was no attention towards our athletes, and we had no medals. When I was elected as the president of Armenian National Olympic Committee, I had one very important goal- to create such conditions for the athletes which would promote their good trainings.  School reconstructions, attention towards the athletes and towards their success, different stipends and awards had their influence on propensity of Armenian sportsmen. They got excited, believed in their skills and understood that nothing is impossible.  The proof for that are 6 bronze medals gained by our athletes during Olympic Games. Yes, those are bronze medals but I am sure that their color will change during next Olympic Games. The important fact is that our athletes once more proved that our nation is very strong and can reach to very good results in short period of time.

- Whom must these results be ascribed to? To the athletes, to the president of Olympic Committee or to the committee itself?

- These results are ascribed to everybody, because it will be impossible to reach anything by your own. Owing to the sequence of Olympic Committee president all the created conditions gave an opportunity to our sportsmen to discover their real skills. First of all, you must give a chance to those people and only after that you can demand something from them. Our sportsmen really worked very hard during this short period of time.  They went for those Olympic Games with strong faith and what’s the most important, they didn’t disappoint us.

- The most impressive moment from the Olympic Games when Gagik Tsarukayn was really affected.

- I got affected when the weightlifter Ara, whose leg was hurt, tried to lift the weight because he wanted to justify our expectations.  Perhaps you saw that he was crying, but not because of the pain, because of what happened. He told his coach to forgive him, his defeat. I got shuddered when I saw how affected he was.

- What can we expect from 2012 London Olympics?

- If we were able to have such results in 2 years, then working and liquidating all the shortcomings with such enthusiasm will bring us to the maximum, which seemed impossible few years ago.  We will have more participants and of course more medals during next Olympics.

- Did you go to Beijing?

-Yes, by all means.

- And where did Gagik Tsarukyan spend this summer holidays?

- Generally I like to spend my holidays in France. My travel way is usually as follows: Monaco, Sardinia, Nice, Cannes. I like to go to different towns on board the ship with my family. But this time I left my holiday incomplete because I was supposed to leave for Beijing.

- What meaning does hunting have for you?

- It is my hobby. I am looking forward to hunting season. I went to Africa this year, where there are perfect conditions for hunting, wonderful nature. The best season for hunting is August 20 up to January. If I have just little free time for hunting during that period I certainly use that opportunity.