YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The participation of the Armenian sportsmen in the Winter Olympic Games of Turin is already an achievement. Gagik Tsarukian, a Deputy of the RA National Assembly, President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia, expressed such an opinion in response to the question concerning the Armenian skiers' coming out of the race, at the February 17 press conference. According to him, the fact that the Armenian sportsmen appeared among the participants, who arrived in Turin from 200 other countries and had good uniforms, should have caused a national pride. G.Tsarukian mentioned that everyone criticizes the work of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia, though nobody speaks about certain positive changes. "If it's two months that it's winter in Armenia, if there were not financing, gymnasiums then how can the sportsmen gain medals?", he said. As Gagik Tsarukian mentioned, proper works are done in this direction. Each of the 200 best sportsmen receive a scholarship amounting to 200 thousand drams and the senior trainers of the national teams receive pensions of 400 thousand drams each (nearly 880 USD) from the National Olympic Committee of Armenia. According to the President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia, proper conditions are created for the sportsmen, who formerly "became offended and left" Armenia, return and prepare for the summer Olympic Games in 2008 in Beijing. G.Tsarukian also mentioned that such an agreement is already achieved with 8 sportsmen.

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