The Guardian: EOC's stance about disastrous situation in Azerbaijan is pathetic
From 12 June, Baku will host a mini-Olympics for top athletes from the 50 member nations of the European Olympic Committees. By selecting Azerbaijan – a state that openly crushes dissent and censors journalism – European sport chiefs have magnified the Olympic movement’s worst elements: high-priced gigantism, censorship and political repression. In doing so, they give Azerbaijan’s autocratic president Ilham Aliyev precisely what he craves: favourable publicity on the world stage, Jules Boykoff writes for The Guardian.
According to the article, father-son duo Heydar and Ilham Aliyev have ruled Azerbaijan since 1993. The Brezhnev appointee yielded the presidency to his son Ilham Aliyev in 2003. It has been a dynasty that is devastating for anyone venting dissent.
WikiLeaks revealed a 2009 cable from a Baku-based US diplomat describing Azerbaijan as a mafia state. With the snap of his fingers, Aliyev the younger has spent $10bn on sports venues and associated infrastructure – although the Azerbaijani government has denied the figure is that high. Autocracy has its privileges. Aliyev, the former head of the Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee, has vowed to pay the tab for all 6,000-plus participating athletes from 50 countries. Aliyev has oil money to burn. He hopes to transmute black gold into Olympic gold, with sport organisers in Baku conjuring a possible bid for the 2024 or 2028 Olympic Games, according to Boykoff.
As the author of the article has it, Baku 2015 comes with opulence and shimmer, but behind the glitzy scrim, it’s not pretty. Targeted political repression is rampant. As games preparations rev up, around 80 political prisoners languish in Azerbaijani prisons. Many more rights activists and journalists have suffered harassment, travel bans and threats. Senior researcher Giorgi Gogia at Human Rights Watch said, “Today is a disastrous day for rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan.”
Boykoff further writes that in 2007, when President Aliyev was asked by a US diplomat about the suppression of journalists, he got prickly. In a document released by WikiLeaks, Aliyev said: “We are not perfect, I prefer not to have these events in Azerbaijan, but it happens sometimes.” Indeed it does. The Committee to Protect Journalists has dubbed Azerbaijan the fifth most censored country in the world. In Reporters Without Borders’ 2015 World Press Index, Azerbaijan ranks 162nd out of 180 countries.
Unwilling to switch off the five-ring money-spigot, the International Olympic Committee has maintained a conspicuous silence. The Baku Games are not an official IOC event, but the European Olympic Committees abide by the Olympic Charter and claim to purvey the ideals of Olympism. At least 70 IOC members plan to attend Baku 2015, Boykoff points.
He highlights that the EOC’s stance is pathetic. EOC president recently stated, “We are very sympathetic to all these [human rights] situations but we don’t have the right to tell a sovereign government what to do or how to behave.” Hickey has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Baku Games.
According to the author of the article, the most influential Briton on hand will be Simon Clegg - the former head of the British Olympic Association who’s currently ramping up pro-Azerbaijan propaganda as the Baku 2015 organising committee chief operating officer. He’s the two-legged embodiment of Upton Sinclair’s maxim that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
In June Azerbaijan will host the first ever European Games, and in 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix. According to the international rights groups, the Azerbaijani authorities have intensified the crackdowns against the dissidents so that nothing can overshadow the two huge sport events. The European Games will cost several billion dollars. Demolition of a large number of houses started in 2014 in Baku in the frameworks of the preparatory works for the Games.
Related:
Newsfeed
Videos
Artur Vanetsyan: I think you'll see me more often at various events in future
