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Azerbaijani government investigates international sport competition taking place in Nagorno Karabakh

30 October 2008 14:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Agshin Aliyev â€“ APA-Sport. International table tennis tournament has started in Khankendi, administrative center of Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijanâ€™s territory occupied by Armenia. APA reports quoting Novosti-Armenia agency that sportsmen from several countries â€“Russia, France, Lebanon, Georgia and Armenia participate in the tournament. The opening ceremony of the tournament was held in the presence of Bako Saakyan, head of Nagorno Karabakh separatists. The tournament will last for three days. The winners will receive money prize and precious presents.

Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Youth and Sport began investigating the issue. Deputy Minister Ismayil Ismayilov said the tournament taking place in Khankendi was illegal.
â€œThis tournament is neither in the schedule of the international, nor European table tennis federation. Nagorno Karabakh is fictitious and the tournament taking placing there is also fictitious,â€ he said.
Ismayilov said protest letter would be sent to the countries participating in the tournament.
â€œWe will send letters to the table tennis federations of these countries and demand them to punish the sportsmen and trainers participating in the tournament,â€ he said.

Secretary General of Azerbaijan Table Tennis Federation Ibrahim Efendiyev said similar competition had also been held in Nagorno Karabakh a year before and added that the protest letter sent to European Table Tennis Federation was not answered.
â€œThough we have very good relations with European Table Tennis Federation, they could not help us last year. They said Khankendi tournament was not held through European Table Tennis Federation. More exactly the table tennis federation of the so-called Nagorno Karabakh republic was not the member of any organization,â€ he said.

Taking a stance on the participation of foreign sportsmen, as well as sportsmen of Russia and France, co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group dealing with the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Khazar Ibrahim said the issue would be investigated and relevant measures would be taken.