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Armenian boxers are competing in the First European Games in Baku. President of Armenia’s Boxing Federation Arthur Gevorgyan spoke about biased judging at boxing matches, RFE’RL Armenian service reports.

“As usual, Baku fails to comply with fair play rules. Judges are unwilling to award points to our boxers. Last Sunday Samvel Barseghyan was defeated, while having an obvious advantage over his opponent. Narek Abgaryan also had an absolute advantage, but in the last two rounds the judge gave points to the Hungarian boxer,” Gevorgyan said.

The Federation’s president wrote on his Facebook account that in the last round Abgaryan competed so successfully that the judges had no option but to assign the victory to him.

According to the website of RFE/RL Armenian service, the National Olympic Committee of Armenia received guarantees, including fair judging guarantees, from IOC President Thomas Bach and Azerbaijan. Yet Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestlers and boxers have so far faced that problem, missing a chance of winning gold medals.

According to ‘Die Tageszeitung’ German paper, Armenian athletes were booed during the European Games in Baku. Wrestler Mihran Harutyunyan who won the first medal for Armenia at the Games, was met enthusiastically by fans in Yerevan and given a laurel wreath for what some Armenians believe was his double victory in Baku: victory over the rival and the spectators. The silver medalist Harutyunyan said upon returning to Yerevan that spectators shouted and booed throughout the Armenian athlete’s match in Baku.
The website also quotes Armenian opposition MP Tevan Poghosyan as saying that the Azerbaijani media stirs up hatred towards the Armenians, which shows how deeply nationalism is embedded in that country.