Let the European Games begin even as controversy looms large

Sometime after 9pm tonight, local Baku time, an Irishman will declare the first European Games open in the most perfectly orchestrated moment in the history of Azerbaijan. In Europe, that is, because historically speaking Azerbaijan has always been in Asia.

For that Irishman, Pat Hickey, it should also be the most perfectly orchestrated moment in his long history with the Olympic movement.

The European Games – essentially a continental Olympics, for Europeans only – has been Hickey's pet project since taking over the presidency of the European Olympic Committee (EOC) back in 2006. "History in the making," as the slogan says.

Only not everyone is being allowed to witness this historic moment. Several media outlets, including the Guardian, have been refused entry into Azerbaijan after highlighting the country's suppression of basic human rights.

And, after the Netherlands this week withdrew their candidacy for the next games in 2019, there may not even be any more history to this.

It all makes for an entirely fitting conflict – because no sporting event, at least not in recent history, has become more divisive than these European Games.

For some, they’re the multisport celebration that Europe has always lacked, and with its craving to embrace a new European identity, Azerbaijan is the ideal host; for others, they’re the latest exercise in political sports-washing, the filthy lucre more important than the filthy conditions of some of its citizens, this one backed by a repressive petro-financed mafia state.

What is certain, for now, is that tonight’s venue – the shining 68,700 all-seated Baku Olympic Stadium, completed last March at a cost of €540 million – will be packed and will include most of the 6,000 athletes, from 50 European nations, set to compete in the 20 different sports over the next two weeks.

Katie Taylor will lead in the Irish team of 63 athletes, and by the end of next week, she hopes to have added a first European Games gold medal to her London Olympic gold medal.

It's already been such a glittering prize to the Azerbaijani government, particularly its president Ilham Aliyev, that no cost has been spared. The operating budget has been roughly set at around €1 billion, and the entire infrastructural spend an unbelievable €9 billion. The entire population of Azerbaijan is just under 10 million: you do that math.

No one is disputing that these games are being run on oil and gas money (two-thirds of Azerbaijan lies under an ocean of oil and gas); what is being disputed is whether or not the sport and politics of events like this have gone beyond separation. If anyone who questions the sporting motivations of Azerbaijan is locked up or sent home, how can the politics possibly be ignored?

"We're getting hammered with that, on a regular basis," Hickey told the New York Times earlier this week. "Because, naturally, all the world bodies are concerned about that. As are we. And we've been very open . . . We go down the same line as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), same as the Beijing Olympics: we cannot dictate to any sovereign government as to how to operate and what to say, but what we do is silently and behind the scenes make our position known and try to edge things along."

Censorship

Some have already made their feelings known less silently: Russian president Vladimir Putin will definitely be there tonight, German chancellor Angela Merkel will definitely not.

Yet in the final countdown to tonight’s opening ceremony, journalistic censorship around the games has become endemic, openly crushing any dissent against the Aliyev government.

Only yesterday, Owen Gibson, chief sports correspondent with the Guardian, was informed his visa for Azerbaijan had been refused, almost six months after the original application and three hours before his flight to Baku. In January, Gibson wrote a lengthy, balanced 4,000-word feature of how Baku was preparing itself for the games, for better or for worse.

Last night, the EOC – of which Hickey is president – issued a statement saying such banning of journalists was “completely against the spirit of sport”, then added: “Now that president Hickey is in Baku, he will be urging the highest levels of government to take the necessary steps to ensure full and free reporting on Baku 2015” but that “these high-level discussions will be conducted in private”.

Earlier this week, Emma Hughes from UK human rights group Platform was also refused entry: her problem was that she highlighted some of the issues surrounding BP's (formerly British Petroleum) links with the Aliyev government in her book, All that Glitters – Sport, BP and Repression in Azerbaijan, due to be published today.

This is the same Aliyev government that has ruled since 1993, not long after Azerbaijan regained its independence from the former Soviet Union: Ilham Aliyev succeeded his late father, Heydar, in 2003, and recently lifted restrictions on his term as president.

Meanwhile, the Protect Journalists committee now ranks Azerbaijan the fifth most censored country in the world; the World Press index ranks it 162nd out of 180 countries; global corruption index group Transparency International rates it 126th out of 175 countries.

There are currently an estimated 100 political prisoners held in Azerbaijan, with at least 35 journalists, campaigners, activists and lawyers also locked up for criticising Aliyev.

Prison sentence

One glaring example of all this is the imprisonment of Azerbaijani activist Rasul Jafarov, who had previously raised concerns over Baku’s staging of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, with his “Sing for Democracy” campaign. This time, Jafarov launched a “Sports for Rights” campaign and that has landed him with a six-year prison sentence. Amnesty International have also been banned from sending any representatives to Azerbaijan (which is possibly because of this video: http://iti.ms/1GhqeCR).

No one even close to Baku expects these games to make a profit, and yet they also come with the promise of €2.5 million in revenue, to be spread out between the 50 EOC members, including the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Five of the 18 venues have been built from scratch – the travel, accommodation and associated costs of all 6,000 athletes have also been paid for (including taxi fares around Baku). It’s no secret that Baku needs to make a success of these Games if it is to have any chance of successfully bidding for the 2024 or 2028 Olympics, as it clearly intends to do.

Only now, given the lengths to which the Aliyev government has gone to silence any critics of these games prior to their opening, it will be grimly fascinating to see how any critics are dealt with during the games – including, as is often the case, any mild form of disapproval from any of the participants themselves.

Let the games begin – only this time at your considerable peril.