Diyarbakir, Dersim to Participate in Pan-Armenian Games

The opening ceremony of the Pan-Armenian Games in 2011 (Photo: armsport.am)

BY RUPEN JANBAZIAN

From The Armenian Weekly

TORONTO (A.W.)””For the first time, teams from Diyarbakir and Dersim will participate in the Pan-Armenian Games in Yerevan. They join 57 other teams this summer from cities in Armenia, Russia, Georgia, Lebanon, Iran, France, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States, and more. The players from Diyarbakir and Dersim will participate in futsal, which is a variant of soccer that is played on a smaller field and considered as a version of five-a-side soccer. Soccer teams from Sasun and Istanbul will also be participating for the second time.

The organizers of the Diyarbakir group are members of the Surp Giragos Dikranagerd Church Restoration Committee. Since the restoration project was a global initiative with many donors and supporters from North America, Armenian athletes from the U.S. and Canada with roots in the region were invited to be part of the team. Five players from Turkey and five from North America (two from Canada, and three from the United States, including the captain of the U.S. Eastern Region Homenetmen soccer team, Asadur Tufeckgian) make up the team.

“I was honored to be invited on the team by the Church Restoration Committee,”