The lead-up to this year’s Europa League final, which is the Union of European Football Association’s (UEFA) penultimate continental club competition, has been stained because European football’s governing body has chosen the capital of the corrupt oil dictatorship of Azerbaijan as its host.
English Premier League heavyweights Chelsea and Arsenal have made it to the final that has lost all its prestige and credibility because the latter club’s star midfielder, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been forced to withdraw for his Armenian nationality.
The history goes something like this. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin reconfigured the borders of the Caucasus during his bloody reign, which was legendary because of his divide-and-conquer strategy. He handed the historically Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (now the Republic of Artsakh) – together with its Christian Armenian inhabitants – to an iron-fisted Islamic dictatorship in Azerbaijan.
In 1991, under the threat of Stalin’s decision forcing this still-ethnically Armenian territory going under the oppressive rule of what would become an independent Azerbaijan, the Armenians of the region exercised their right to self-determination and voted 99.98 percent in favor of independence in a region-wide referendum.
This independence is still not internationally recognized, and Azerbaijan continues to shell civilians and soldiers across the border, despite an internationally brokered ceasefire.
Therefore Armenia, as the sponsor of peace in the Republic of Artsakh, remains technically at war with Azerbaijan.
Thirty year-old Mkhitaryan, an Armenia international, has been forced to miss several matches in Baku during his distinguished career as there is no way Azerbaijan can be trusted assuring his security.
This time, under increased scrutiny because the match is the final of the Europa League, Azerbaijan had apparently “given assurances” to Arsenal football club – through UEFA – about Mkhitaryan’s safety if he traveled to Baku for the showdown against Chelsea.
However, like any Armenian, Mkhitaryan remembers when Armenian serviceman Gurgen Markaryan expected similar assurances in 2004, when he was participating in a joint NATO course in Hungary, along with soldiers from many other countries, including Azerbaijan.
One morning, he was suddenly woken up by an ax-wielding Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who hacked him to death simply for being Armenian.
Hungary later sensationally extradited Safarov back to Azerbaijan, where he was greeted as a hero and promoted for his deeds.
You see in Azerbaijan, racism in the shape of Armenophobia is real. And it is state-sanctioned.
Children’s textbooks in Azerbaijan erase Armenia from world maps. Government officials describe Armenians as enemies of the state. The president declares his intention to rid the region of Armenians and march on Armenia’s capital. Anyone with an Armenian surname is unable to enter the country.
This racism and Armenophobia are also the reason why Arsenal and Chelsea season ticket-holders with Armenian last names (ending in ‘ian’ or ‘yan’) were rejected visas to travel and watch their teams in what should be a historic final.
This alone should be reason enough for UEFA – an organization apparently committed to ending racism – to choose against granting the Europa League final to Baku.
However, they have even more reasons.
Freedom House ranked Azerbaijan 11/100 on its freedom index in 2019, stating:
“In Azerbaijan’s authoritarian government, power remains heavily concentrated in the hands of Ilham Aliyev, who has served as president since 2003. Corruption is rampant, and following years of persecution, formal political opposition is weak. The regime has overseen an extensive crackdown on civil liberties in recent years, leaving little room for independent expression or activism.”
While true that Ilham Aliyev has been in power since 2003, it must be noted that he took over from the only other president who has led the country since independence, his father Heydar Aliyev.
Further, he recently extended his powers via a much-criticized referendum, that has him able to serve unlimited seven-year terms in office. After achieving this new milestone, Aliyev – in true Frank Underwood fashion – went on to appoint his wife as the country’s first vice-president.
The Washington Post reported earlier this year, that “Azerbaijan under President Ilham Aliyev holds 128 political prisoners, according to a survey by a watchdog, the Working Group for a Unified List of Political Prisoners. The list includes 68 religious activists, 17 political and social activists, 14 people arrested for participating in protests, 10 religious believers, nine journalists and bloggers, three ‘political hostages’ who are relatives of politicians, three people with excessive life sentences, two former state officials, one rights defender and one poet.”
Desperate to clean up its public image, Azerbaijan has sought to use its considerable oil wealth to buy favor in the West.
One recent example has come to be known as the “Azerbaijani Laundromat” – a money laundering scheme uncovered by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) involving over US$2.9 billion between 2012-2014 alone, which saw blood money funnelled into the pockets of European politicians, bureaucrats and journalists in exchange for silence in the innumerable human rights abuses committed by the Azeri regime.
And UEFA, in all its infinite wisdom, has ignored all these facts and rewarded Baku with the right to host one of the most significant matches in the sporting calendar, effectively robbing it of its gravitas, honor, prestige and glory.
British broadcaster and Arsenal fan, Piers Morgan recently tweeted:
Absolutely spot on.
Morgan added:
Again, spot on.
Morgan once again:
I don’t think many have agreed with three Piers Morgan tweets, like they would on the above.
Because the question of “Baku or Not Baku?” should only ever have one answer. And that is “Not Baku.”
#BoycottBaku
Haig Kayserian
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