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The chief operating officer of the First European Games Baku 2015, Simon Clegg, told the journalists during the press briefing that the Armenian sportsmen will cover their own expenses for the competition, news website Day.az reports.

Day.az reminds that Hrachya Rostomyan, the Secretary General of the Armenian National Olympic Committee, said that the President of the Armenian NOC Gagik Tsarukyan will cover all the financial expenses of the Armenian team. “It is true. They are arriving at their own expense. It is really the way their NOC said,” he stated.

After the Vice-President of the Azerbaijani National Olympic Committee, Chingiz Huseynzade, declared that the host country will cover all the expenses of the 50 delegations taking part in the Games, including the Armenian delegation, Azerbaijan saw a rise of a wave of calls to refuse hosting the European Games because of the financial crisis. The head of the so-called “Karabakh Liberation Organization” (KLO), Akif Nagi, voiced yet another threat to the Armenian national team. “We will not give the representatives of Armenia the chance to visit Baku. Otherwise we will take any measure to hinder them and even drive them out of Baku,” Nagi told the Azerbaijani information agency Faktxeber.

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. 53 people will reportedly be included in the Armenian delegation.

The European Games due by late June, 2015, will cost several billion dollars. Demolition of a large number of houses started in 2014 in Baku in the framework of the preparatory works for the Games.