{"id":1415,"date":"2015-04-03T13:55:03","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T13:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2015-04-07T14:01:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T14:01:50","slug":"lavish-spending-on-euro-games-as-azeri-economy-falters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1415","title":{"rendered":"Lavish Spending on Euro-Games as Azeri Economy Falters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By NURGUL NOVRUZ*
\nIntsitute for War and Peace Reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

Splashing out cash on first-of-its-kind sporting event seen as a valuable PR exercise by Azerbaijan\u2019s leaders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hosting the European Games is seen as a way of polishing Azerbaijan\u2019s international reputation, which has been dented by criticism of human rights abuses. But as spending goes through the roof, there is increasing concern that money is being squandered at a time when the country can least afford it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The European Games on June 12 to 28 will be the first ever, so hosting them is a particular honour for Azerbaijan. The Olympic committees of European states voted to support its application by 38 out of 48 votes. Then again, Azerbaijan was the only country bidding.<\/p>\n

Sports minister Azad Rahimov is chief executive of BEGOC, the committee running the games in Baku. He says four billion US dollars has been spent on building a new sports \u201ccity\u201d and refurbishing existing facilities.<\/p>\n

Interviewed by the APA news agency, Rahimov made it clear that the games were about putting Azerbaijan on the map.<\/p>\n

The international audience watching the games will get a further opportunity to become better aquainted with Azerbaijan, a fast-developing country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the funding for the games was being \u201cproperly monitored\u201d and that \u201cthe public is regularly informed about this\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Joshgun Eldaroglu, sports commentator for the opposition newspaper Azadliq, \u201cthis competition hasn\u2019t got anything to do with developing sport. For the Azerbaijani government, the games are above all political.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eldaroglu says the international Olympic movement has benefited by \u201cnot having to spend a dime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan is paying the travel and accommodation costs of all 6,000 sportsmen and women who are competing.<\/p>\n

Eldaroglu noted that Russia was hosting the football World Cup in 2018, and Qatar four years after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly dictators are in a position to hold games like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Arastun Orujlu, head of the East-West think tank, agrees that hosting the European Games is a public relations exercise with a political motive. In his view, the government will fail in its attempt to deflect attention from the concerted campaign to silence dissident voices by arresting opposition members and independent journalists and shutting down the organisations they work for . (For more, see Arrests Continue Ahead of Euro-Games<\/a> and Grim Year for Press Freedom<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no profit from these games. They represent the pursuit of political goals,\u201d Oruglu said. \u201cBut it won\u2019t have the desired effect. Lots of money was spent and cultural facilities were built for the Eurovision Song Contest [in Baku in 2012], yet Azerbaijan was highlighted in the foreign media through shaming reports on human rights violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The total cost of the 2015 European Games is known, but a figure of around eight billion dollars has been reported for the budget.<\/p>\n

Zohrab Ismayil, head of the Associatiation for Promoting a Free Economy, is concerned about no-holds-barred funding for the games at a time when Azerbaijan is tightening its belt in other areas. A 30 per cent currency devaluation in February left borrowers struggling to repay loans at a much increased rate, while prices in the shops went up sharply in anticipation of higher import costs. (See Personal Debt Crisis Bites in Azerbaijan<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In the current economic climate, Ismayil believes the lavish spending on the games is not just imprudent, but potentially dangerous, especially as the income they generate is likely to be modest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price of oil on world markets is fairly low, and it is forecast to fall further,\u201d he said. \u201cIn that scenario, limitless spending doesn\u2019t bode well. An economic crisis is already emerging.<\/p>\n

One warning sign for any post-Soviet state is when public-sector institutions stop paying their staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been able to get my wages for three months now,\u201d said a 52-year-old teacher originally from Kelbajar in western Azerbaijan. \u201cThe last time I spoke to the education department about my salary, they told me not to worry, the back pay would come to us in chunks once the European Games were over. But for now, we should just put up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

*Nurgul Novruz is the pseudonym of an Azerbaijani journalist.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By NURGUL NOVRUZ* Intsitute for War and Peace Reporting Splashing out cash on first-of-its-kind sporting event seen as a valuable PR exercise by Azerbaijan\u2019s leaders. [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}