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AZERBAIJAN AND IRAN: WRESTLING OVER POLO-LIKE GAME
EurasiaNet.org
Dec 13 2013
December 13, 2013 - 1:25pm, by Shahin Abbasov
Azerbaijan and Iran have tussled over weighty issues relating to
religion and energy development in the Caspian Sea in recent years.
And now they're haggling over ponies.
The neighboring states can't see eye to eye when it comes to the
origins of chovgan - the Eastern, polo-style game that UNESCO recently
deemed an "intangible world heritage" closely connected to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, a UNESCO Goodwill
ambassador, reportedly worked hard behind the scenes to promote
chovgan's cause among UNESCO officials.
At first glance, chovgan doesn't seem much of a cause for an
international spat. It is not a professional sport, and it has no
cache among the jet-set. Horse-riding instructors make up most of
Baku's two teams; farmers often fill the ranks of regional teams.
Overall, about 20 teams in Azerbaijan compete in the sport, with
matches often drawing only sparse crowds. With 12 players to a side,
it has only a few differences from polo - its ball is larger and the
150-to-200-meter-long playing field is sandy rather than grass.
Players wear traditional clothes rather than white breeches; and
chovgan matches last just 30 minutes, with one 10-minute break.
It is chovgan's similarity to polo, and that sport's affiliation with
the rich and powerful around the world, that is apparently a factor
in the Iranian-Azerbiajani dispute.
Movers and shakers in Baku seem to believe that UNESCO recognition
can provide Azerbaijan with entree into the world of polo. Chovgan
players will make up Azerbaijan's new national polo team - the
country joined the International Federation of Polo on December 7 -
local coaches say. The team played a friendly match with Argentina's
polo team in October.
"Polo is a modernized and, I would say, more civilized form of
chovgan," said 48-year-old Shukur Valiyev, coach of Baku's Serhedchi
(Border Guard) team, and a prominent chovgan player from the Soviet
era.
That Azerbaijanis are now trying to cast their country as the
cradle of polo, and that is raising hackles in Iran. Many Iranians
believe the game's origins are found in Persian, rather than Azeri
lands. In October, the Islamic Republic announced a campaign against
including chovgan on the UNESCO list as an "Azerbaijani game." Lately,
Tajikistan, a Central Asian country with Persian cultural influences,
has entered objections as well.
Baku, having become accustomed to criticism from its southern,
fellow Shi'a neighbor, are adopting a somewhat conciliatory course,
acknowledging that the sport is not Azerbaijan's alone. "Chovgan is
popular in all countries of the East," said Azerbaijani Culture and
Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev said at a December 3 news conference.
Iran's zeal for chovgan must be aimed at "the development of the
game," Garayev reasoned, generously. "I do not think that small
misunderstandings could harm the friendly relations between Azerbaijan
and Iran."
Chovgan isn't the only cultural area that has spurred bilateral
sparring. Currently, the countries are disputing the origins of the
legendary 12th-13th-century poet Nizami Ganjevi, who lived in the
central Azerbaijani city of Ganja.
Chovgan's Turkic origins - the game mostly has been played in Turkic
countries -- are plain to Fizuli Bayat, a scholar at Azerbaijan's
National Academy of Sciences' Folklore Institute. Fragments from
ancient Azerbaijani miniatures and one 11th century vessel portray the
game, which is also mentioned in the Turkic epic Kitabi Dede Korkut.
Historical manuscripts describe its rules.
"It was also played in Iran and India, but by the Turkic population
in these lands," Bayat said. Similar games with different names
are played in Afghanistan and the Balkans, he added. Azerbaijan's
northern neighbor Georgia itself has a chovgan-like game called isindi,
Valiyev noted.
Azerbaijan evidently feels that UNESCO recognition can also help
promote its political agenda. As advertisements broadcast on CNN and
Euronews indicate, chovgan may serve as a PR tool in the country's
efforts to focus international attention on the long-stalemated
Nagorno-Karabkah conflict.
A distinctive feature of the sport, according to Azerbaijan's UNESCO
application, is its reliance on a short-legged breed known as the
"Karabakh horse."
"Due to the Karabakh conflict, this sport is endangered," declared
Culture and Tourism Minister Garayev. "The population of Karabakh
horses is not growing."
Work on preserving the mild-mannered Karabakh horse is centered in the
northern town of Sheki, which hosts two annual chovgan tournaments,
including a December 16 "presidential cup" competition involving
16 teams.
Aside from Sheki, a nine-time national chovgan champion, a team
from the Azerbaijani-controlled section of the occupied Agdam
region, neighboring Karabakh, is another top-ranked contender. The
northwestern town of Agstafa, not far from the Armenian border,
ranks as the current champion.
The State Border Guard Service sponsors Baku's Serhedchi (Border
Guard) chovgan team, while the Service's head, Elchin Guliyev,
runs the Azerbaijan Federation of Equestrian Sports. The Federation
cares for all chovgan horses, supplies players' equipment, maintains
playing fields and provides transportation to tournaments, according
to Valiyev, the Serhedchi coach.
While Baku and Tehran may be arguing over chovgan, they are planning
to join forces to have another sport - zorkhana, a type of wrestling -
recognized as an Olympic sport.
In October, Iranian Ambassador Mohsen Pakayin met with local zorkhana
participants to discuss recognition efforts, Trend news agency
reported. "Zorkhana is the shared cultural heritage of Azerbaijan
and Iran," Ambassador Pakayin said. "This sport contributes to the
rapprochement not only of the two countries, but also of the two
nations."
No joint application has been filed yet to have the sport considered
by the International Olympic Committee, according to one informed
source. The sport, though, is expected to feature in the 2017 Islamic
Solidarity Games, to be held in Baku.
Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based
in Baku.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67870
From: Baghdasarian
EurasiaNet.org
Dec 13 2013
December 13, 2013 - 1:25pm, by Shahin Abbasov
Azerbaijan and Iran have tussled over weighty issues relating to
religion and energy development in the Caspian Sea in recent years.
And now they're haggling over ponies.
The neighboring states can't see eye to eye when it comes to the
origins of chovgan - the Eastern, polo-style game that UNESCO recently
deemed an "intangible world heritage" closely connected to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, a UNESCO Goodwill
ambassador, reportedly worked hard behind the scenes to promote
chovgan's cause among UNESCO officials.
At first glance, chovgan doesn't seem much of a cause for an
international spat. It is not a professional sport, and it has no
cache among the jet-set. Horse-riding instructors make up most of
Baku's two teams; farmers often fill the ranks of regional teams.
Overall, about 20 teams in Azerbaijan compete in the sport, with
matches often drawing only sparse crowds. With 12 players to a side,
it has only a few differences from polo - its ball is larger and the
150-to-200-meter-long playing field is sandy rather than grass.
Players wear traditional clothes rather than white breeches; and
chovgan matches last just 30 minutes, with one 10-minute break.
It is chovgan's similarity to polo, and that sport's affiliation with
the rich and powerful around the world, that is apparently a factor
in the Iranian-Azerbiajani dispute.
Movers and shakers in Baku seem to believe that UNESCO recognition
can provide Azerbaijan with entree into the world of polo. Chovgan
players will make up Azerbaijan's new national polo team - the
country joined the International Federation of Polo on December 7 -
local coaches say. The team played a friendly match with Argentina's
polo team in October.
"Polo is a modernized and, I would say, more civilized form of
chovgan," said 48-year-old Shukur Valiyev, coach of Baku's Serhedchi
(Border Guard) team, and a prominent chovgan player from the Soviet
era.
That Azerbaijanis are now trying to cast their country as the
cradle of polo, and that is raising hackles in Iran. Many Iranians
believe the game's origins are found in Persian, rather than Azeri
lands. In October, the Islamic Republic announced a campaign against
including chovgan on the UNESCO list as an "Azerbaijani game." Lately,
Tajikistan, a Central Asian country with Persian cultural influences,
has entered objections as well.
Baku, having become accustomed to criticism from its southern,
fellow Shi'a neighbor, are adopting a somewhat conciliatory course,
acknowledging that the sport is not Azerbaijan's alone. "Chovgan is
popular in all countries of the East," said Azerbaijani Culture and
Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev said at a December 3 news conference.
Iran's zeal for chovgan must be aimed at "the development of the
game," Garayev reasoned, generously. "I do not think that small
misunderstandings could harm the friendly relations between Azerbaijan
and Iran."
Chovgan isn't the only cultural area that has spurred bilateral
sparring. Currently, the countries are disputing the origins of the
legendary 12th-13th-century poet Nizami Ganjevi, who lived in the
central Azerbaijani city of Ganja.
Chovgan's Turkic origins - the game mostly has been played in Turkic
countries -- are plain to Fizuli Bayat, a scholar at Azerbaijan's
National Academy of Sciences' Folklore Institute. Fragments from
ancient Azerbaijani miniatures and one 11th century vessel portray the
game, which is also mentioned in the Turkic epic Kitabi Dede Korkut.
Historical manuscripts describe its rules.
"It was also played in Iran and India, but by the Turkic population
in these lands," Bayat said. Similar games with different names
are played in Afghanistan and the Balkans, he added. Azerbaijan's
northern neighbor Georgia itself has a chovgan-like game called isindi,
Valiyev noted.
Azerbaijan evidently feels that UNESCO recognition can also help
promote its political agenda. As advertisements broadcast on CNN and
Euronews indicate, chovgan may serve as a PR tool in the country's
efforts to focus international attention on the long-stalemated
Nagorno-Karabkah conflict.
A distinctive feature of the sport, according to Azerbaijan's UNESCO
application, is its reliance on a short-legged breed known as the
"Karabakh horse."
"Due to the Karabakh conflict, this sport is endangered," declared
Culture and Tourism Minister Garayev. "The population of Karabakh
horses is not growing."
Work on preserving the mild-mannered Karabakh horse is centered in the
northern town of Sheki, which hosts two annual chovgan tournaments,
including a December 16 "presidential cup" competition involving
16 teams.
Aside from Sheki, a nine-time national chovgan champion, a team
from the Azerbaijani-controlled section of the occupied Agdam
region, neighboring Karabakh, is another top-ranked contender. The
northwestern town of Agstafa, not far from the Armenian border,
ranks as the current champion.
The State Border Guard Service sponsors Baku's Serhedchi (Border
Guard) chovgan team, while the Service's head, Elchin Guliyev,
runs the Azerbaijan Federation of Equestrian Sports. The Federation
cares for all chovgan horses, supplies players' equipment, maintains
playing fields and provides transportation to tournaments, according
to Valiyev, the Serhedchi coach.
While Baku and Tehran may be arguing over chovgan, they are planning
to join forces to have another sport - zorkhana, a type of wrestling -
recognized as an Olympic sport.
In October, Iranian Ambassador Mohsen Pakayin met with local zorkhana
participants to discuss recognition efforts, Trend news agency
reported. "Zorkhana is the shared cultural heritage of Azerbaijan
and Iran," Ambassador Pakayin said. "This sport contributes to the
rapprochement not only of the two countries, but also of the two
nations."
No joint application has been filed yet to have the sport considered
by the International Olympic Committee, according to one informed
source. The sport, though, is expected to feature in the 2017 Islamic
Solidarity Games, to be held in Baku.
Editor's note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based
in Baku.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67870
From: Baghdasarian