None of the leaders of the European countries have confirmed their participation in the closing ceremony of the European Games. This was declared by the Minister of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan Azad Rahimov, APA reports.
He told the reporters that prime ministers and speakers of parliaments of several countries have expressed their willingness to participate in the celebration.
It should be noted that during the opening ceremony of the first European Games also very few European leaders have participated. It was the leaders of Montenegro, Monaco, Serbia and Russia that were preset there.
Generally, it should be noted that Aliyev’s hopes from the European Games for improving country’s image were not justified. The international media have covered very little the events both during the preparatory phase of the European Games and during the process. Moreover, the main part of the publications was in negative tone.
From the first days of the Games the ban of several European media to cover the European Games, because of the publications of those media about the internal affairs of Azerbaijan, caused a real stir. And the day of the opening ceremony of the European Games, the international media instead of covering the events, was writing about the lack of democracy in Azerbaijan.
This can be called one of the exceptional cases in the history, when a country spends millions of dollars for its black PR.
It is only left to add that the closing ceremony of the European Games will take place on June 28.