18:44, 24 July 2014

Azerbaijani Centre to Resist Repressions calls to boycott European Games-2015 in Baku

Leyla Yunus. Photo by Aziz Karimov for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

The Centre to Resist Repressions (CRR) created under the Azerbaijani Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) has launched a campaign for the boycott of the European Games to be held in 2015 in Baku. Leyla Yunus, the Director of the IPD, has sent corresponding appeals to the European Olympic Committee and the office of the European Olympic Committee in the European Union. The call for boycott is motivated by human rights violations in Azerbaijan; however, the tactics of the boycott is not unanimously shared by all the country's rights defenders.

"It is unacceptable to hold the Games under the auspices of the Olympic movement in the authoritarian Azerbaijan, where all the fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms are violated. The main principles of the Olympiad are tolerance, indulgence, and commitment to peace and accord," Leyla Yunus said in her comment on the initiative of the CRR under the IPD to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The first European Olympic Games in history will be held in Baku from June 12 to June 28, 2015, and expect to attract over 7000 athletes.

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent