Let us leave aside the comments and hailstorm of fury on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement about “deportation of 100 thousand illegal immigrants from Armenia”. Any move of a politician, especially one like Erdogan, pursues a certain goal; in this particular case we can assume it is as much directed to the Armenian Diaspora as it is for domestic use. However, Erdogan could not expect such a sharp reaction across the world, including Turkey.

The first sitting of the Board of trustees at Venetian center for Armenian culture studies was scheduled for Saturday, March 13. Armenian Minister of Culture, Hasmik Poghosyan left on a working visit to Italy to participate in a sitting. The sitting focused on further activities of the center, RA Ministry of Culture press service reported.

Boxing: On Saturday night at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, California, Darchinyan did his part to keep the hopes for rematch with Filipino Nonito Donaire alive, boxing to a commanding unanimous decision win over 22-year old challenger Rodrigo Guerrero (13-2-1, 9 KO) of Mexico City, Mexico.

Last week, the internal political life in Armenia has been very active. On March 1, Monday, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) coordinator Levon Zurabyan addressing a rally in Yerevan on behalf of ANC voiced six steps to get out of the ‘March crisis’. According to Levon Zurabyan , those steps should be implemented before the next meeting of the PACE Monitoring Committee. "First of all, it is necessary to release all political prisoners, the second, to recover until April an independent body investigating killings on March 1 and 2. Third, to review the law on holding rallies and marches in April and re-shape it. The fourth, to open the A1 + TV station by May, the fifth, to reform the Armenia’s electoral code by late May and the seventh – to hold early parliamentary and presidential elections between June and September, " Levon Zurabyan said. The Congress will present these issues to the Council of Europe representatives on March 16 in Armenia.

The government announced plans to connect most of Armenia’s general and secondary schools to the internet and join them into a unified network by 2011. The director of National Center for Educational Technologies Areg Grigoryan said 624 schools are already connected to the world wide web with plans pending to connect 750 more schools to the internet once work on building the dedicated network is completed as part of a World Bank funded project.

February 15 is International Childhood Cancer Day. New cases of cancer in Armenia account for 7000 annually, including about 100 children under 15. The figure is terrifying, although they don’t differ much from the world statistics. Cancer is a very insidious disease without marked initial symptoms. In most cases, the latent period of the disease is durable and it can hardly be detected in the initial stage.

The GDP in Armenia grew by 2,4% in January 2010, compared with January 2009 results, to comprise AMD 149,5 billion.