news.az, Azerbaijan
April 10 2010
Armenian sportsmen not involved into Russian national wrestling team
Sat 10 April 2010 | 06:46 GMT Text size:
Russian team in Greko-Roman wrestling has decided not to bring
sportsmen of Armenian origin to Baku for participation in the European
championship.
According to News.Az, the final four did not include Seyran Simonyan
and Mifran Arutyunyan, whom the head coach of the Russian team Gogi
Koguashvili intended to probe at the European championship, but then
it was decided not to take them to Baku.
`Sport must never contain political moments, while wrestlers have
always been friendly. It is not by accident that we are called the
wrestling brotherhood. I have no doubts that the Azerbaijani side will
take all necessary measures to provide security for Armenians. But
there can be any inadequate persons in any society whose actions
cannot be predicted or averted’, Gogi Koguashvili said commenting on
the decision not to take Armenians to the European championship.
First vice president of the Azerbaijan Wrestling Federation Namik
Aliyev responded as follows:
`Frankly speaking, I do not understand what the reason is. Does
Russian side fear provocations? Several fencers of Armenian origin,
representing different teams of the world are currently in Azerbaijan
and no problems appear. In addition, the Armenian teams have also
arrived in Baku and they were satisfied with the reception. Thus, I do
not see the reason why the Russian wrestlers of Armenian origin cannot
take part in the European championship in Baku’.
The Armenian national team also refused to come to the European
championship in Azerbaiajn.
Elmir Aliyev
News.Az