President of the European Olympic Committee, Patrick Hickey, said that as the First European Games in Baku approach the pressure on the European Olympic Committee from human rights organizations is only growing.
"We’ve met with Human Rights Watch International, then we appeared in front of the European Parliament in Brussels three weeks ago. They have huge power internationally, and we got grilled in there. However, we go down the same line as the Beijing Games - we said that we cannot dictate to any sovereign government as to how to operate. But what we do is silently make our position known and try to edge things along," Hickey told the New York Times.
The President of the EOC said that "the same probably will happen with whoever wins between Almaty and Beijing. But we’re not the world policeman. It is an issue in Europe. Some countries don’t raise it, but it’s very strong in the likes of Germany," he said.Patrick Hickey said that in deciding on the choice of Baku as the capital of the First European Games, the European Olympic Committee was guided by the fact that Azerbaijan was the only country that could afford to organize the Games with their own money in the short term."The media never hit upon this because they only want to look for negatives. Azerbaijan is officially at war with Armenia, and we have persuaded Armenia to send a full team to participate. And we have persuaded Azerbaijan to accept them. People lose sight of this because of what is going on in Iraq, Syria and Libya. But there’s friction on the border every day," he reminded.
The President of the EOC said that "the same probably will happen with whoever wins between Almaty and Beijing. But we’re not the world policeman. It is an issue in Europe. Some countries don’t raise it, but it’s very strong in the likes of Germany," he said.
Patrick Hickey said that in deciding on the choice of Baku as the capital of the First European Games, the European Olympic Committee was guided by the fact that Azerbaijan was the only country that could afford to organize the Games with their own money in the short term.
"The media never hit upon this because they only want to look for negatives. Azerbaijan is officially at war with Armenia, and we have persuaded Armenia to send a full team to participate. And we have persuaded Azerbaijan to accept them. People lose sight of this because of what is going on in Iraq, Syria and Libya. But there’s friction on the border every day," he reminded.
