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Azad Rahimov, the Minister of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, recently stated that the security of the 30-50 sportsmen from Armenia arriving to take part in the European Games in Baku, as well as the Armenian delegation, will be ensured. Yet, active discussions concerning the participation of Armenia in the European Games are on in Azerbaijan, such as “Was it worth inviting the Armenians to Baku in the current conditions of the tension at the frontline?” Is that step reasonable from the side of Azerbaijan itself? How will the Azerbaijani society react to that? Akif Nagi, the head of the so-called “Karabakh Liberation Organisation” founded in Baku, touched upon this topic in his interview to the Azerbaijani information site “Moderator.az”.

According to the article, Nagi once again declared that the thought about Baku hosting Armenians doesn’t fit into his logic.

Nagi stated that unlike Rahimov, a number of Ministries and Committees in Azerbaijan have arranged their activities in such a way that no Armenian was present at the important events of governmental level, the article reads.

“Azerbaijan mustn’t give Armenians the opportunity to take part in the upcoming European Games,” protested Nagi.

In October, 2014 during his meeting with the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach assured that IOC and EOC will exert every effort to guarantee the security of the Armenian sportsmen in the country hosting the European Games, that is Azerbaijan. On 5 November in Bangkok, Patrick Hickey, the head of EOC (European Olympic Committee) declared that Armenia will take part in the European Games in Baku and noted that the problems preventing that have already been solved.

The above mentioned so-called “Karabakh Liberation Organization” is notorious for its provocations against the Armenian sportsmen and delegates who arrived in Azerbaijan on different occasions. In July, 2014 a group of the members of this so-called “Karabakh Liberation Organization” held a protest in front of the complex Flame Towers in Baku, where the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Standing Committee meeting was on. The participants expressed their protest against the participation of the Armenian MPs in the meeting. Earlier in March, they spread a statement threatening to expel from Baku the representative of Armenia in CIS states Armed Forces chief-of-general-staff’s meeting. In 2011 KLO activists got into the sport complex after H. Aliyev and started to throw stones at the Armenian sportsmen who were taking part in the World Boxing Championship. Waiting for the Armenian boxer to come out, they started yelling “Armenians, get away”, “Shame on the inviters”, “Karabakh or death”, unleashing a barrage of stones to the ring.