European Games in Baku: Will Armenians Participate or Not?

• 03.11.2015, 14:43
•  Europe,  Region,  World,  Armenia

Head coach of the Armenian Greco-Roman wrestling, Olympic champion Levon Julfalakyan and the Wrestling Federation of Armenia, spoke against participating in the European Games , which will be held in Azerbaijan. Armenia does not believe in the high level security assurances provided by IOC and the European Olympic Committee (EOC).

It should be reminded that in October 2014 the Head of the IOC Thomas Bach and the President of the EOC Patrick Hickey paid a visit to Yerevan, where at the meeting with the President of Armenia  Serzh Sargsyan, they  promised to do everything to ensure necessary conditions for the Armenian sportsmen at the European Games. In its turn, the Azerbaijani government expressed its readiness to provide sportsmen from Armenia in regard with providing visas and security.

 For the first time in the Olympic history the European Games are going to be held in Baku from June 12 to 28, 2015. More than 6000 athletes on 20 kinds of sports from 49 countries are expected to take part in the Games. The press service of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia announced about the participation of the Armenian sportsmen on March 11.  The RA Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Gabriel Ghazaryan affirmed that the participation of the Armenian sportsmen in the European Games is indispensable. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia has decided that the decision on the participation of members of the Olympic team of the Republic in the first European Games in Baku will be up to the Armenian athletes themselves. At the same time, Armenia, anyway,  will participate  in the European Games.

In Baku the Armenian sportsmen will compete for medals in six sports:  sambo, shooting, judo, wrestling, boxing and taekwondo.  In this regard, the first secretary of the ANOC Hrachya Rostomyan in an interview with the "Voice of Armenia" announced that "each sportsman has the right to a personal opinion regarding the participation in a particular international tournament.  You cannot force the sportsman to perform, it is the personal decision of each of them, but overall, especially the experienced sportsmen must take into consideration the negative consequences in case they do not participate in such an important competition."  According to him, "it is very important to raise the Armenian flag especially in 2015."