ARMENIA: FROM ODD FELLOW TO BLACK SHEEP
Though hockey has been played on and off since the 1960s, it was only ten years ago that the Armenian Ice Hockey Federation was founded and Armenia became a member of the IIHF. A national league was established in 2001, and five years ago, in 2004, Armenia started to participate in the IIHF World Championships. This has been a less than joyful experience both for Armenia and for the IIHF.

During the Division III World Championships of 2004 and 2005, the Armenia was the odd team in and otherwise competitively balanced group of very small and unexperienced ice hockey nations.

Armenia entered the international stage on 17 March 2004 against Ireland at the Division III World Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. Armenia started the game optimistically and took the lead on the powerplay after 9:49. The historic goal was scored by Dmitri Khachatryan. But from that point, things went steep downhills for the next 5 years. For starters,  Armenia lost the inaugural game 1-15. 13 of Ireland's goals were scored in even play, and one Armenian player, forward Raffi Kajberouni had a particularly bad night: he ended up with a minus 12! Things went from bad to worse in the next game where Armenia lost 0-30 to Iceland. Poor Raffi Kajberouni also had the worst +/- in this game with minus 16. The shot count was 77:4. Armenia went on to suffer two more double-diget defeats to Mexico and Turkey. In its 17-0 loss to Mexico, Armenia was out-shot 107:11, and when they played Turkey, the shot count officially said 48:1, but Armenia did indeed score on that lonely shot.

Hard to imagine that things could go worse for the Armenian team, but it happened. In the 2005 World Championships, Armenia suffered even bigger defeats against lowly opponents such as South Africa (1-33), Ireland (1-23), Luxembourg (3-38) and Mexico (0-48). But then in 2006, when the IIHF Division III returned to Reykjavik, Armenia all of a sudden start to beat the opponents that had thrashed the team only 12 months earlier. Too good to be true. To be sure, the Armenian roster featured a few wellknown names like our friend Raffi Kajberouni, but Armenia's stunning performance came down to a few good men who hadn't played in the previous world championships - players with first names such as John and Joe who at International Hockey Forums received greeting from their fellow employees at shops and bookstores in the Los Angeles area. While at the same time, they were listed by the Armenian federation to be playing for HC Urartu on the other side of the planet.

Suspicion was raised, and at in the runup to the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Ireland, Armenian players were denied visa at the Irish embassy in Moscow. Karen Khatchatryan, the president of the Armenian Ice Hockey Federation was furious: "They deliberately denied us entry. I think there was some preliminary arrangement between the embassy an the the team of Ireland. The Armenian team is stronger than that of Ireland. The Irish secured their chances to participate in the next phase by this act".

The IIHF handled the case very poorly. Instead of investigating the eligibility of the Armenian players, the IIHF Congress decided to issue a two-year ban on Armenia for not icing a team in a World Championship where it had committed itself to participate. But how could Armenia ice a team if it wasn't allowed entry to the host nation of the championship? Armenia subsequently won the appeal and was allowed to play in the 2008 Division III Qualifying tournament that took place in Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina in March 2008. Armenia beat the host nation 18-1 and lost to Greece 5-7. Meanwhile, however, the IIHF did its proper work investigating the eligibility of the Armenian players. Armenia was promptly disqualified and rumors at the 2008 IIHF Congress had it that as much as 14 of the Armenian players were ineligible. The IIHF Congress suspended Armenia for one year and put the Armenian federation on a 3 year probation. This was the first time the IIHF had ever used its eligibility rules to exclude a member from future IIHF World Championships.

It was a necessary and just decision, but it was also an unhappy decision as it could do a lot of harm to the development of hockey in Armenia. The sport is very fragile in many of the division II and III nations. At the 2009 IIHF Congress, the IIHF  thus quickly put Armenia back on the map by allowing Armenia to host the 2010 Division III (Group B) World Championship. A nice gesture.

ARMENIA'S YEAR IN EXILE
So what has Armenia been up to in the year of exile? In 2008-09, the Armenian ice hockey league was played at usual. Five teams participated each playing a 16-game schedule. The league was not only very well-organized compared with other national leagues at the same level, it was also more exciting than usual as Dinamo Yerevan almost managed to pull down HC Urartu from the Armenian hockey throne in a thrilling 3-game final series (more on the 2008-09 Armenian championship here). At the international stage, the Armenian national team played various games against teams from Georgia and Ukraine.

Thus, fortunately, there's no indications that the development of the sport has been hurt by the IIHF ban, neither that the level of the national team players has degenerated.

As Ike Dzahhatspanyan, the vice president of the Armenian federation explains: "Sure, for a whole year our national team has not been allowed to participate in the competitions under the auspicies of the IIHF. But this has not prevented us from playing friendlies. Among other things, we have thus participated in a tournament in Batumi (Georgia) where we played against teams from Georgia and Ukraine. And we have maintained the regular national team practises, so I would not say that the disqualification has affected the physical and technical level of the Armenian national team".

The SCC Karen Demirchayn indoor arena in Yerevan (originally constructed in 1987) has furthermore been renovated in 2008 and now has a capacity of 6,000. The World Championships in April next year will take place in this arena.

After Armenia was granted the hosting rights, Karen Khachatryan immediately went into action by getting the hotel lodgings in place for the event. Sadly, Karen Khachatryan died in a car accident on his way to the biannual IIHF Congress in Tunis last month but his preparatory work for the World Championship will continue under the new leadership. Much has already been accomplished.

THE ROAD TO YEREVAN
In 2010 the IIHF Division III World Championship has been splitted into two groups reflecting the growing numbers of IIHF members that participate in the events. Armenia will host group B which is a non-European group including Armenia, DPR Korea, Mongolia and South Africa. PR Korea will be the team to beat if Armenia  is to be promoted to Division II (only one team will be promoted). The North Koreans will be a tough nut to crack as they were only relegated from Division II earlier this year after narrow losses to China and Iceland. Nevertheless, promotion is Armenia's objective.

"Our objective is ultimately to win the group and be promoted to Division II",  says Ike Dzahhatspanyan, "a second place does not lead to promotion, so we do not even think about this scenario. Our toughest rival will be DPR Korea. We have never played against them, and we know very little about them".

There is no doubt that Armenian ice hockey is making progress. The young IIHF nation is also making plans for the future. Among other things, a Caucasian league involving teams from both nations is in the making, and Armenia is also considering entering a team to the Russian Vysshaya league. It's also healthy to have ambitions and to keep a competitive spirit. But it is a little absurd to think that Armenia, the team that a few years ago lost 48-0 to Mexico, will have any chance against DPR Korea. Though anything can happen. Even foul play. But that would be the most dangerous and stupid thing, Armenia could do. The Armenian federation is still under probation and it can rest assure that the eligibility of Armenian players will be scrutinized carefully by the IIHF.

Douglas Di Cesare, the American head coach of the Armenian national team, makes clear that he and the Armenian federation will make sure that all players on Armenia's IHWC roster will be Armenians with Armenian citizenship. He admits that  Armenia has contemplated with the idea of inviting players from Russia that were born in Armenia, but this idea has been dropped.