AIM - A New Beginning: A Happy Ending for Team Istanbul


On Sunday, August 24 on the closing day of the third Pan Armenian games, a young man from Istanbul wed a young woman from Yerevan. Armando Cosentinov and Christina Musaellian were married at the St. Hripsime Church in Ejmiatsin. Witness to their union was the entire Istanbul team of 70 athletes plus coaches, supporters, family members and of course the bride's family and friends in Yerevan.

At Ani Hotel, where the Istanbul team had camped out during the games, the lobby was in full wedding mode. Outside, the team's luxury bus awaited to transport Armando's team mates and friends to the bride's home before they continued on to the church. The duduk ensemble played traditional music as the groom and his party came down. Nearby, a white limousine, with California license plates, lingered patiently for the anxious groom, his mother, the best man and his wife. For a moment, it seemed more like Glendale, California than Yerevan, Armenia.

Nishan and Margrit Atinizian, sponsors of the Istanbul team, rented the limousine, hired the traditional duduk band and provided a cake from Armenia Hotel--which the Atinizians own, together with a few other Diaspora investors.

And off they went to whisk the bride off to church. White limousine, fancy bus and of course the videographer who proved he would get as many details of as many moments as possible as he sat on the ledge of the passenger window of the moving Soviet-era Fiat to document the convoy on its way to Bangladesh, where the bride lives.

Armando who plays Volleyball for the Istanbul team met Christina two years ago at the second Pan Armenian games. She didn't speak Turkish, nor he Armenian, but they found a common language in Italian. They dated, he proposed, she accepted.

As Armando's convoy stopped in front of the bride's building, the lively music resumed, out poured his friends and teammates from the bus and the groom led the party to his soon-to-be-bride's home. The neighborhood children followed. Men and women hung out of their windows and balconies. Everyone danced. It was a beautiful day. A young man from Istanbul and a young woman from Yerevan brought together by fate or sport or both were going to be wed. When Ashot Melik-Shahnazarian, Founder and Vice President of the World Committee of the Pan Armenian Games proclaimed his wish for the games to create "unity Through Sport" he couldn't have imagined this.

"I'm very happy that my son has found a bride from such a wonderful family. At first, I thought this was an impossible endeavor considering the distance, but I'm very happy that things have worked out," said the groom's mother.

As the bride and groom emerged from a gray building, music played on, an elderly woman passed out candy to the children and neighbors and Armando's teammates formed a passageway for the bride and groom to pass through.

Christina's grandfather, Georgi Hambartsumian could only add, "May they grow old on one pillow."