Azerbaijani athletes competing in the European Games have been allowed to dispense with fasting for Ramadan in a bid to boost predominantly Shi’a Muslim Azerbaijan’s results in the Olympics-style competition.
With 29 medals to its name, Azerbaijan currently ranks second to Russia for medal-results among the 50 countries taking part in the Games. How many of its 285 athletes are observant Muslims is open to speculation, but, apparently, the Caucasus Muslim Authority, a close ally of the secular Azerbaijani government, wants to do its part for the team effort, too.
Victory on the playing field “pleases God,” local clerics ruled in a recent fatwa and blessed athletes who opt to skip the fast, which bans food, drink and sex from dawn to sunset, APA news agency reported on June 19.
The month-long celebration of Ramadan started in Azerbaijan on June 18, less than a week after the Games began.
“To make sure that the valiant Islamic sportsman is stronger than his competitor in the month of Ramadan, he cannot observe oruj [fast],” said the Baku-based Caucasus Muslim Authority. “To defeat a competitor on a sports field, to defend the honor of your country and raise the flag of your homeland is important and pleases God.”
The fact that this is the first time that Azerbaijan has hosted the Games qualifies as a special circumstance, the body held.
Azerbaijan was the only country that bid to host the Games, a pet project for President Ilham Aliyev, who heads up the National Olympic Committee.
Reflecting the traditional Caucaus strength in combat-sports, Azerbaijani athletes have scooped up a series of wins in wrestling, karate and taekwondo.
But, so far, few international observers expect Azerbaijan itself to win a gold medal for freedom.
Just as thousands of athletes and guests were descending on Baku for the June 12 start of the Games, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter whisked out of the city media-freedom campaigner Emin Huseynov, perhaps the only prominent Azerbaijan democracy activist to escape arrest recently.
Huseynov spent 10 months sheltered in Switzerland’s Baku embassy, while fellow human rights advocates and government critics, such as investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif Yunus, and human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, were picked up and jailed on what democracy-watchdogs consider dubious charges.
Some members of President Ilham Aliyev’s ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party initially accused the Swiss government of having “stolen” Huseynov, who was wanted on charges of tax evasion and abuse of power – a standard accusation against government critics.
The Swiss embassy, however, commented to EurasiaNet.org that Huseynov’s “departure from Azerbaijan was a result of negotiations between the two countries.”
A few pro-government sites have reported recently that President Aliyev stripped Huseynov of his Azerbaijani citizenship after the activist fled to Switzerland. On June 19, one member of Aliyev’s YAP, Ali Huseynli, chairperson of the parliamentary committee on legal policy and state building, fumed angrily that
“There is no place in the sacred lands of Azerbaijan for hypocritical and treacherous people . . .who requested asylum in European countries."
Reports that Huseynov has lost his citizenship, however, could not be confirmed. The presidential website contains no decree or order on the matter.
In response to an enquiry from EurasiaNet.org about Huseynov’s citizenship status, the Swiss embassy emailed that “Currently[,] Mr. Huseynov is in Switzerland and he is in position to ask [for an] asylum and leave Switzerland for any country he wishes.”
Azerbaijani officials have dismissed criticism of their treatment of such figures as part of an alleged international conspiracy to tarnish the country’s image during the European Games.
*Nargiz Rashid added reporting to this post.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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