A sporting event was once again the space chosen to express a feeling, in this case of hate, aroused by a political and military tension. An Armenian man infiltrated the parade of the opening ceremony of the European Weightlifting Championship to be held until April 23 in Yerevan, capital of Armenia, and set fire to the flag of Azerbaijan. Immediately, the Azerbaijani government ordered the withdrawal of the entire delegation prior to the competition because “there were no guarantees of safety” and because of the “psychological pressure” of the athletes.
The incident, described as an “attack” by the European Weightlifting Federation and as a “barbaric act approved by the Armenian public” jointly by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Olympic Committee of the Caucasian nation, took place at the Karen Demirchyan Complex before the eyes of the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, a week after the historically disputed border region of Nagorno-Karabakh suffered an armed confrontation between the countries.
The arsonist, known as Aram Nikolyan, a popular fashion designer who had made the costumes of the flag-bearers, was arrested and later released without charge after breaking into the stage, extracting the flag from the girl carrying the flag and burning it and then retiring “like a hero”, according to the joint statement. “My only goal was to make sure that the Azerbaijani flag did not wave in Armenia,” the person responsible confessed in a video on his social media.
The International Weightlifting Federation endorsed the statement of the European Federation in which it condemned the episode for violating the values of “respect, dignity and fair play” and underlined solidarity and support with the Azerbaijani team. However, it did not carry out any sanctions, as had been required by the Azerbaijani government. The pardon that did not appear was that of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia.
As a result of the desertion, five athletes —Isa Rustamov, Omar Javadov, Ali Shukurlu, Dadash Dadashdayli and Nazila Ismayilova- missed out on the chance to continue adding marks for Paris 2024 in the second qualifying competition (the previous one was the Bogotá 2022 World Championship). In order not to harm them on their way to the next Games, their inclusion in the African Championship to be held in Tunisia between May 11 and 20 is being evaluated.
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