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Azeri Wrestlers In Armenia For European Championship

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  • Azeri Wrestlers In Armenia For European Championship

    AZERI WRESTLERS IN ARMENIA FOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
    Hasmik Smbatian

    Armenialiberty.org
    Sept 9 2009

    Armenia -- Judo contest, undated 09.09.2009

    Five young athletes from Azerbaijan arrived in Yerevan late on Tuesday
    to compete in a European judo championship for juniors and mark their
    country's first-ever participation in a sporting event held in Armenia
    since the Soviet collapse.

    The tournament, which starts on Friday, will bring together judo teams
    from about 40 countries, including Turkey. Azerbaijan's participation
    in it was made possible by a special agreement signed by the Armenian
    and Azerbaijani ministers of sport in Yerevan last week.

    The agreement commits the host country to ensuring the Azerbaijani
    team's security, creating adequate conditions for it, and playing
    Azerbaijan's national anthem if one of its wrestlers becomes a
    European champion.

    Tight security measures were visible on Wednesday at a Yerevan
    hotel where the 15-strong Azerbaijani delegation, which also includes
    coaches, doctors, judo officials and journalists, will stay during the
    competition. "We can't go anywhere without them," Gunduz Abbaszade,
    a sports reporter for Azerbaijan's ANS television, told RFE/RL,
    pointing to scores of security officers deployed in the hotel lobby.

    "We are not scared because they are with us," he said. "Everything
    is fine ... The main thing is that they don't hinder us."

    "This day will probably do gown in history," grinned Azer Garayev,
    an ANS cameraman.

    In Abbaszade's words, the Azerbaijani athletes are determined to
    win with gold medals in Yerevan. Aleksan Avetisian, chairman of the
    Armenian Judo Federation, admitted that they have good chances of
    doing well in the tournament.

    "I must say that Azerbaijan has a fairly strong team," Avetisian
    told RFE/RL. "They won a gold medal in last years' Olympic Games,
    something which many countries can only dream about."

    The unresolved conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has been an extremely
    serious hindrance to Armenian and Azerbaijani athletes' participation
    in sporting events held in each other's country. Citing the conflict,
    the Azerbaijani government usually opposes the presence of various
    Armenian delegations on its soil.

    In 2007, the authorities in Baku refused to guarantee the security
    of Armenia's national soccer team, which was due to play Azerbaijan
    as part of a qualifying campaign for the 2008 European football
    championship. The Armenian side rejected Azerbaijani demands that
    the games between the two teams be played in a neutral venue, leading
    European football's governing body, UEFA, to cancel the fixtures.

    Later that year, the Azerbaijani government reluctantly agreed to
    allow Armenian wrestlers to compete in a world championship in Baku,
    under apparent pressure from the International Olympic Committee and
    FILA, the sport's world governing body.
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