Azerbaijan slams flag burning at weightlifting celebration in Armenia | Athletics Information

Azerbaijan withdraws its athletes from the European Weightlifting Championships right after the Azeri flag was burned for the duration of the opening ceremony.

Azerbaijan claims it has withdrawn its athletes from the European Weightlifting Championships hosted in the funds of rival Armenia after a flag-burning incident for the duration of the opening ceremony.

Azerbaijan claimed it had come to be extremely hard for its athletes to acquire element in the championships and they had previously left Armenia to vacation home by way of Ga.

Video clip of the incident on Saturday showed a guy snatching the flag and location it alight, prompting an indignant joint statement by Azerbaijan’s youth and sporting activities ministry and its Countrywide Olympic Committee.

They condemned it as a “barbaric act” and as proof of ethnic hatred and racism, declaring Armenia was unfit to ensure the basic safety of athletes and host global sporting events.

“In circumstances when this sort of an environment of hatred prevails in Armenia, protection is not ensured, the typical participation of Azerbaijani athletes in competitions is unachievable due to the psychological force,” the statement said.

“Politicising sport is certainly unacceptable,” it added, urging the European Weightlifting Federation to impose sanctions on Armenia.

Next the flag burning incident in #Yerevan, the #Azerbaijani weightlifting workforce resolved to withdraw from the European Weightlifting Championships in #Armenia.

The 🇦🇿 staff had currently booked tickets for a flight from Yerevan to Antalya and then to #Baku at 2:55 am. Even so,… pic.twitter.com/QqgxoqF8Pv

— The Azeri Instances (@AzeriTimes) April 15, 2023

Armenia turned down that criticism, stating the incident had been fixed rapidly and with out any risk to competitors at the championships.

“The incident that occurred for the duration of the opening ceremony, which was fixed incredibly quickly, has absolutely nothing to do with assures of safety of the athletes,” it claimed.

Russia’s RIA Novosti information company mentioned Armenian law enforcement briefly detained the gentleman accountable and quoted his legal professionals as stating he was launched without cost.

The two nations around the world have experienced hostile relations because the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, of which they had been both equally component.

Due to the fact that time, they have fought two big wars in excess of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountain enclave that is internationally recognised as portion of Azerbaijan but is populated primarily by ethnic Armenians. Seven troopers were killed in combating in just the previous week.