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Baku 2015 European Games


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I still prefer the other Design for the Baku Olympic Stadium. This one is decent, except for those Seats that won't see the whole pitch and running track.

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Has anyone heard of any of the European tv-channels that are going to transmitting LIVE from Baku? Here in Denmark I have asked the different channels, and they all say they don´t know yet. So I´m a bit curies, if any other nations have heard anything from there channels?

This is a list of European broadcasters that signed an agreement to broadcast the games. It is not the final list thouhg:

21px-Flag_of_Albania.svg.pngAlbaniaTring Media

23px-Flag_of_Austria.svg.pngAustriaSport1

23px-Flag_of_Belarus.svg.pngBelarusBelarus 5

23px-Flag_of_Belgium_%28civil%29.svg.pngBelgiumSport 10

23px-Flag_of_Estonia.svg.pngEstoniaERR

23px-Flag_of_France.svg.pngFranceL'Equipe 21

23px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.pngGermanySport1

23px-Flag_of_Hungary.svg.pngHungaryDigiSport

23px-Flag_of_Italy.svg.pngItalySky Italia

23px-Flag_of_Latvia.svg.pngLatviaLTV

23px-Flag_of_Luxembourg.svg.pngLuxembourgRTL Group

23px-Flag_of_Moldova.svg.pngMoldovaMoldova Sport TV

23px-Flag_of_Portugal.svg.pngPortugalSport TV

23px-Flag_of_Romania.svg.pngRomaniaDigiSport

23px-Flag_of_Slovakia.svg.pngSlovakiaDigiSport

23px-Flag_of_Slovenia.svg.pngSloveniaRTV Slovenija

23px-Flag_of_Spain.svg.pngSpainRTVE

16px-Flag_of_Switzerland.svg.pngSwitzerlandSport1

23px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.pngTurkeyNTV Spor

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Euro Games to incorporate continent's judo championships

The 2015 European Judo Championships will be incorporated into the inaugural European Games.

The championships were taken off Glasgow after issues with the British Judo Association.

The judo at the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan will be June 25-28 in a 7,800-capacity venue.

AP

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_307134/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=xaNLgOwt

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Azerbaijan: Rights Crisis Overshadows European Games

The Azerbaijani government should immediately release all wrongly detained activists and journalists, with only 100 days remaining before the first European Games begin. A new photo essay highlights the plight of 12 people serving or facing long prison terms in Azerbaijan, apparently in retaliation for criticizing government policies.

Azerbaijan will host the first European Games, a multi-sport event, in the capital, Baku, from June 12 to 28, 2015. The games are anticipated to take place in a European country every four years.

“As the first country to hold this new major European sporting event, Azerbaijan is looking to project a progressive, modern image internationally,” said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “If the European Games are to show that sport can leave a positive legacy, then every journalist and activist detained on politically motivated charges in Azerbaijan should be released well before the opening ceremony.”

European leaders should convey to Baku that they will not send high-level delegations to the opening ceremony unless those wrongly imprisoned are released and the crackdown on dissent ends.

A top official from the Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee was quoted in media reports in late February as saying that the Azerbaijan government will cover the transportation and other costs for 50 teams to participate in the games. The British Olympic Team’s chief of mission acknowledged that the Azerbaijani organizers had effectively paid for its team to compete, the Guardian newspaper reported.



In the last year, the Azerbaijani authorities used a range of bogus criminal charges, including narcotics and weapons possession, tax evasion, hooliganism, incitement, and even treason, to arrest or imprison at least 35 human rights defenders, political and civil activists, journalists, and bloggers. The crackdown has prompted dozens of others to flee the country or go into hiding. Many of the activists face similar charges, suggesting the punitive and political nature of the allegations.

In recent months Azerbaijani authorities also froze the bank accounts of numerous independent civic groups and their leaders, forcing these organizations to suspend their work or close. The government has also refused to register foreign grants and increased government control of foreign funding, making it virtually impossible for groups that criticize the government to function. The government has for many years harassed independent newspapers and television stations and forced many independent media outlets to shut down.

The European Games are not an official Olympic event, but are owned, co-organized and regulated by the European Olympic Committees (EOC), an association of 50 European National Olympic Committees. Among EOC’s goals is to spread throughout Europe the Olympic ideals as defined by the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Charter.

Among those currently in detention facing strikingly similar trumped-up charges and long prison sentences is the human rights activist Rasul Jafarov, who was organizing a “Sport for Rights” campaign to highlight human rights concerns in Azerbaijan ahead of the European Games when he was arrested in August 2014. He faces criminal tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and abuse of authority charges.

Leyla Yunus, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, and her husband, Arif Yunus, were arrested in July and August 2014, respectively, and charged with treason, tax evasion, and illegal entrepreneurship. Both have chronic health conditions that have deteriorated severely since their detention, their lawyers have said.

One of Azerbaijan’s best-known and most highly respected human rights lawyers, Intigam Aliyev, is also in detention and on trial for spurious tax-related charges, apparently in retaliation for his human rights work. Authorities have sealed shut the office of Aliyev’s organization, the Legal Education Society, effectively closing one of the few groups in the country that provided pro bono legal aid.

In December, the authorities arrested Khadija Ismayilova, Azerbaijan’s leading investigative journalist and an ardent government critic, on spurious charges of driving someone to attempt suicide, and then in January added charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and abuse of power. In December, police and prosecutors raided the office of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Baku, questioned employees, seized equipment and files, and sealed off the premises.

Even before the current crackdown, the government had taken numerous steps to limit independent media. All foreign radio stations, including BBC and the Voice of America, have been banned from FM frequencies since 2009.

The government’s intolerance for free media has direct implications for journalists covering the European Games, including their ability to move and speak freely with a range of people and to cover a variety of topics in Azerbaijan, Human Rights Watch said.

In 2012 Azerbaijan hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. Many journalists covering Eurovision also reported extensively on the human rights situation in the country, including through interviews with many of those now detained, imprisoned or in hiding.

“The government’s attack on journalists, news outlets, human rights organizations and others blatantly defies the letter and spirit of the Olympic Charter’s principles on press freedoms and human dignity,” Buchanan said. “The European Olympic Committees and National Olympic Committees should make clear to Baku that it is making a mockery of Olympic ideals and that it needs to free the imprisoned activists and journalists and end the severe restrictions on the media and free expression.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/04/azerbaijan-rights-crisis-overshadows-european-games



Azerbaijan to host European Games amid widespread and relentless repression

Threats, physical violence and the imprisonment of government critics have become the hallmark of the Azerbaijan regime as the country prepares to host the first European Games, said Amnesty International in a new report released today, 100 days before the opening ceremony.

Guilty of Defending Rights: Azerbaijan’s human rights defenders and activists behind bars highlights the mounting persecution of government critics, detained under false charges, beaten and threatened and deprived of urgent medical care and lawyers.

"Its authorities are among the most repressive in Europe and would certainly be on the medal winning podium if prizes were on offer for the number of activists and rights defenders behind bars.”

At least 22 prisoners of conscience are currently languishing in prison or in detention in Azerbaijan awaiting trial following trumped up charges ranging from fraud and embezzlement to abuse of drugs and even treason.

In June 2014 President Aliyev stated in his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that freedom of expression, association and assembly are assured in Azerbaijan.

However, prominent human rights defenders spoke of a different reality, detailing more than 90 instances of harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and politically motivated charges against human rights defenders, journalists and others daring to criticize the Azerbaijani government. The response of the authorities was swift; within a matter of weeks, those who had given their testimony to the Parliamentary Assembly were arrested, one after another.

“These latest arrests have effectively paralysed civil society and closed the lid on freedom of expression - marking the nadir of the country’s human rights record since independence,” said John Dalhuisen.

Leyla Yunus, a 60-year-old human rights defender and one of the most outspoken and high profile critics of the government, was arrested in July 2014 - a few days after calling for a boycott of the Games because of the regime’s dire human rights record.

Leyla Yunus told her lawyer that a warden dragged her from her cell to an empty room where she was thrown on the ground and kicked. On another occasion a group of men made sexually threatening gestures towards her. She has spent the last six months in prison awaiting trial where the harsh conditions have aggravated her health problems. She suffers from diabetes and hepatitis C.

Leyla Yunus was charged with treason, conducting illegal business, tax evasion, abuse of authority, fraud and forgery. These trumped up and politically motivated charges were the result of new regulations brought in by the government to allow them to arbitrarily shut down NGOs and imprison their leaders.

Crackdown on journalists
The authorities have intensified a crackdown on journalists critical of the government. Award-winning investigative journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, was detained on 5 December 2014 on an implausible charge of inciting a former colleague to suicide.

Khadija had published a list of political prisoners and was also investigating claims of links between President Aliiyev’s family and a lucrative construction project in Baku. She previously received anonymous threats that intimate photos of herself, believed to have been taken by government officials covertly at her home, would be published if she did not abandon her work.

Trumped up drug and hooliganism charges against youth activists
The authorities also target critical and outspoken young activists, accusing them of drug-related offences or hooliganism. The allegations used to secure their arrest are highly questionable and questioning by the police focused on their political views.

Faraj Karimov, a popular blogger, claimed that he was beaten by police to make him admit to drug-related charges. He was threatened that unless he signed a “confession”, police would “cause problems for his parents” by planting weapons at their house.

Violence is also rife in detention. Orkhan Eyyubzade, a 19-year-old pro-democracy activist who was serving a 20-day administrative detention for participating in an “unauthorized” peaceful gathering, was viciously attacked by two policemen. He told his lawyer that police forced him to lie on his stomach, handcuffed his hands behind his back, tore off his underwear, punched and kicked him and threatened to rape him with a bottle. No effective investigation into these allegations has been carried out. Instead, he himself was accused of assaulting police officers and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

Amnesty International is calling on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience and to fully and impartially investigate all allegations of ill-treatment by state and non-state actors. Amnesty International further calls on the authorities to cease from threatening and criminally charging people for exercising their freedom of expression and association.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/03/azerbaijan-european-games-amid-relentless-repression/

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Today the Danish tv-channel TV2 has mentioned that they have bought the rights to transmit from European Games in Baku. And the first 3 Danish athletes has been awarded participation. One women BMX cyckling, and a mail Beach volley couple.

Has any other countries startet to name there participants?

5. Rene Poulsen (kayak) and Casper Stenderup (triathlon) as well ;)

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I was wondering what took so long to point the repression of the Azeri regime towards its population on regards of the European Games.

Cue Galandar claiming that it's all Western propaganda.

Azerbaijan wanted these Games, they were the only bid and probably convinced European NOCs to irganise this fof the first time with a few good "arguments".

It's just a stepping stone for their Olympic bid, but they're no better than Qatar. In Sochi, the whole Azeri team consisted of imported athletes, in Eurovision they literally always use foreign songwriters. The regime does not care about promoting local talent, they just want to put on a glittery show for themselves.

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Cue Galandar claiming that it's all Western propaganda.

Azerbaijan wanted these Games, they were the only bid and probably convinced European NOCs to irganise this fof the first time with a few good "arguments".

It's just a stepping stone for their Olympic bid, but they're no better than Qatar. In Sochi, the whole Azeri team consisted of imported athletes, in Eurovision they literally always use foreign songwriters. The regime does not care about promoting local talent, they just want to put on a glittery show for themselves.

Pretty sure they just want the rest of the world to notice they exist.

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Whenever a dictator screws up and messes around and their people get mad at him, they always recurre to the old "The Western media is doing a campaign to ruin our reputation waaah!" excuse. And I mean, always. Chavez and now Maduro loved/love to do that.


I like Baku preparation for the games but the nature of the Azeri regime is going to make it so easy it will be boring for Amsterdam to get the next edition. Doubt they will pick an eastern european nation again. Specially Russia.

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