Azerbaijani community protests over European Football Cup in occupied Karabakh

26 December 2018 11:46 (UTC+04:00)

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By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Fake football structure raves about another fake football tournament among unrecognized states.

The Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno Karabakh region expressed concern on December 24, over the holding of the European Football Cup 2019 next June by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA) in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

In this regard, the Azerbaijani community sent a letter to the President of the Confederation of Peru, Anders Blind. The letter expresses deep concern and anger of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in connection with the holding of the 2019 European Cup in the occupied Karabakh.

It is noted that the military aggression of Armenia led to the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands - Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The letter states that Armenia carried out a policy of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh. This policy has led to the fact that over a million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons.

It is also emphasized that this ConIFA tournament violates the norms and principles of international law and contradicts the official position of the world community and international organizations supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. This provocation is not only a threat to peace and stability in the region, but also damages the negotiations between the parties, the letter says.

The letter reminds that there is only one club representing Azerbaijanis from the occupied territories of the country and this is Qarabagh FC.

"At the moment, the club holds its home games away from Agdam, occupied and completely destroyed by Armenian troops in Baku. Despite the fact that FC Qarabagh is forced to be and play far from Agdam, the club became known throughout the world after participating in group UEFA Champions League stages," the letter stated.

Moreover, this provocative action not only promotes the illegal regime but also stimulates the manifestation of separatism and irredentism in the region destroyed by the Armenian occupation.

"Conducting this tournament in a region that is in a war, ConIFA and you, its president, are seriously responsible for the lives of tournament participants, foreign journalists and other media representatives, sending them to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," the letter concludes.

Earlier, Azerbaijan Football Federation Association strongly condemned the holding of the European Championship, which is expected to involve 12 teams in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

ConIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations for teams that are members of it. This tournament is also called “the world soccer championship among teams of unrecognized states”.

In fact, this tournament does not carry any official value. In Europe, there are two official structures that are authorized to hold or give the right to host world and continental championships. This is FIFA and UEFA. As of today, 206 officially recognized states are members of FIFA, which have the right to conduct and compete for participation in world and continental championships.

ConIFA is a structure that is not recognized by FIFA and UEFA.

Since 1992, Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the occupation of Armenian armed formations. Occupied Karabakh is not recognized by the international community, even by Armenia.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94