Mehriban Aliyeva appointed Chairman of Islamic Solidarity Games Organizing Committee
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan’s First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva was appointed the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the IV Islamic Solidarity Games to be held in Baku in 2017.
President Ilham Aliyev signed a relevant decree on the establishment of the Organizing Committee for IV Islamic Solidarity Games on September 18.
President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva was also the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Baku 2015 European Games that was successfully held in Baku this June.
Baku, that hosted the significant sport competition the Baku 2015 European Games this June, is ready to receive another major sporting event, as the whole infrastructure is available in the Azerbaijani capital.
The decision to hold the fourth Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku was made at the eighth elective general assembly of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in July 2013.
The Games, which will bring together athletes from 57 countries, will be held under the slogan “Solidarity is our power”. More than 160 Azerbaijani sportsmen will participate in the Games. The Muslim religion of all athletes is not a pre-condition for participation in the competition.
The Islamic Solidarity Games is a multinational, multi-sport event involving the elite athletes of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, which is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the UN with 57 member states spread over four continents.
The first of the ISG tournaments was held in 2005 in Saudi Arabia with an Olympic-style tournament aimed at showing Muslim sports prowess and featuring 6,000 athletes.
Azerbaijan gained four gold, four silver and seven bronze medals at the first ISG, thus becoming the eighth country in the medal table.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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