KARABAKH FOOTBALLERS ANGER BAKU

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
July 17 2009
UK

Region goes ahead with its own league despite Azerbaijan’s objections.

Football officials in Nagorny-Karabakh, a self-declared state in the
South Caucasus, have organised their own tournament despite strong
protests from the government in Azerbaijan.

Karabakh, which won de facto independence from Baku in a conflict that
ended with a ceasefire 15 years ago, is ruled by ethnic Armenians and
its football players have previously appeared in Armenia’s league. But
this year, for the first time since the war, it has organised it
own tournament.

"The federation is now doing all it can to restore the previous
strength of football in Karabakh," said Artur Apresian, vice-president
of Karabakh’s self-proclaimed football federation.

The league features nine teams and, after three rounds of matches,
was being led by the team from the capital Stepanakert.

But state and football authorities in Azerbaijan, whose sovereignty
over Karabakh is internationally recognised, were furious about the
tournament, saying it had no backing from UEFA or FIFA (the European
and world governing bodies for the sport).

"First of all you have to remember that there is no recognised
republic named Nagorny Karabakh," said Elkhan Polukhov, spokesman
for the foreign ministry in Baku.

"Therefore international sports organisations cannot recognise some
tournament held there. Presumably, some individual has just decided to
organise this. By doing so, they are breaking the laws of Azerbaijan
and the international football federation."

The Azerbaijan football federation said it would complain to the
international football authorities, even though it doubted they would
even pay attention to the new league.

"They are doing a completely pointless thing. National championships
have to be held under the badge of FIFA or UEFA. I do not believe
that the international football organisations will recognise the
results of this championship, but all the same we will send a protest
in connection to this," said Ramin Musayev, president of the PML,
Azerbaijan’s professional football league.

There is a history of football being a cause of confrontation between
ethnic Armenians and Azeris in Azerbaijan. As early as 1987, when
the Soviet Union still existed and Armenians were just starting their
agitation to break Karabakh away from Baku’s control, the club side
from Kirovabad came to play in Stepanakert.

After Kirovabad lost 3-1, there were mass fights between Armenian and
Azeri fans, and the Soviet government in Moscow forced the Stepanakert
side to play its home games elsewhere in Azerbaijan.

"They say sport is far from politics, but of course it is not like
that. As soon as you go into the international arena, then politics
starts to interfere with sport," Razmik Hovsepian, head of the Karabakh
sports committee, told IWPR.

He said sportsmen from Karabakh were already hostages of politics,
since they are forced to represent Armenia if they want to compete
in international competitions. Last year, athletes from Karabakh won
134 medals for Armenia in various contests around the world.

Karabakh’s new football federation is trying to rectify the situation,
and to find a way of legally joining the international sport body.

"We have now set the goal of becoming associate members of UEFA and
playing openly at championships. Apart from this, we know there is a
sub-committee of FIFA which conducts the development of the game in
unrecognised countries. Next year, there will be a championship between
unrecognised countries, and that is around 30 teams," said Apresian.

A representative team of Karabakh already saw success when it became
the all-Armenian champion between 2001 and 2007, but it could not
play its home games in Stepanakert because of UEFA’s rules. With time
passing, therefore, a whole generation of Karabakh footballers has
lost the chance to play before their own fans.

"The world must understand that sport exists in Karabakh, independent
of it having a recognised or unrecognised status, and talented
sportsmen as well, and they have the right to fight for the title
of best sportsman in the world, even though they live in a territory
that is currently unrecognised," said Rasmik Hovsepian, head of the
sports committee of Karabakh.

"A sportsman’s career is too short, and no one has the moral right to
take away his chance to exhibit himself in the international arena,
even if Azerbaijan does not like the colours of our state flag."

Karine Ohanyan is a freelance journalist from Nagorny Karabakh. Joshqun
Eldaroglu is a freelance journalist in Baku.