Nearer we get to European Games, more pressure will come

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Baku is on the threshold of the big sporting event – the inaugural European Games, which was eagerly awaited by millions of people in Azerbaijan and Europe.

However, as a rule, Azerbaijan constantly faces a pressure by some forces when it realizes any major event, important for Europe and associated with the culture, sports.

Even days ahead of this important sporting event, Azerbaijan, which carried out magnificent works in a short time for holding the Games, has been subjected to the sharpest criticism.

Some organizations and forces have started an anti-Azerbaijan campaign aimed at putting pressure on Azerbaijan and harming the country's image.

Patrick Hickey, the president of the European Olympic Committees commented on the criticism against Azerbaijan that increased with nearing the Baku 2015.

In his recent interview with International New York Times, Patrick Hickey said as the Games is nearing, the pressure is increasing.

“We’re getting hammered with that on a regular basis because, naturally, all the world bodies are concerned about that. As we are. And we’ve been very open. We’ve met with Human Rights Watch International, who are a global, collective agency for most of the groups. Then we appeared in front of the European Parliament in Brussels three weeks ago. They have huge power internationally, and we got grilled in there. We go down the same line as the I.O.C., same as the Beijing Games: We cannot dictate to any sovereign government as to how to operate and what to say, but what we do is silently and behind the scenes make our position known and try to edge things along,” Hickey said.

He noted that the same thing happened in China, when it held Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

“I view it as the nearer we get to the Games, the more the pressure will come. The same thing has happened with the I.O.C. in Beijing and the Tibet issue. The same probably will happen with whoever wins between Almaty and Beijing [in the competition to host the 2022 Winter Olympics]. So we’re not the world policeman, but it is an issue in Europe. Some countries don’t raise it, and some are very strong. It’s very strong in the likes of Germany. You don’t hear about it so much in other countries, but we’re very conscious of it. We’re very respectful to it,” Hickey said.

He further said Azerbaijan was the right choice for holding the European Games from the sporting point of view and from the treatment the athletes will get.

“But the other thing we are very proud of — and of course the media never hit upon this because they only want to look for negatives — is that we’ve done a remarkable thing in that Azerbaijan is officially at war with Armenia, and we have persuaded Armenia to send a full team to participate and we have persuaded Azerbaijan to accept them. People lose sight of it because of what is going on in Iraq, Syria and Libya. But there is the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh between the two countries, and there’s friction on the border every day,” Hickey said.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s.

18 Armenian sportsmen arrived in Baku for participation in the European Games. Armenians will take part in the competitions in boxing, wrestling, shooting, sambo and judo.

“It’s a great success for everybody. There was a big debate within Armenia because there is deep hatred between the countries. Lots of families were unhappy to let their athletes go. I understood the significance of it coming from Ireland, living through the troubles of Northern Ireland,” Hickey said.

Baku 2015 is the first-ever European Games, an exciting and innovative multi-sport event for the continent which will take place on June 12-28, 2015.

There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition.

Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.