Thursday, June 10 2021 12:02

ArmInfo.Sports commentator Nobel Arustamyan was accredited for the European Football Championship. This was announced by  official representative of the  Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria  Zakharova, referring to the issue of accreditation of the Russian  commentator at the World Cup.

"Excellent. Thank you UEFA. We are working on," Zakharova wrote in  her Telegram channel.

Arustamyan himself, commenting on the incident, in particular wrote:  "What about my accreditation for Euro? It's time to explain.

I was not going to be PR on this whole story, so I ask for a petition  from colleagues who are attacking me these days and ask to speak out.  In no case do I want to make myself popular on this topic. I will say  a few words here and now, when the situation has already been  resolved.

At the end of May, I was denied accreditation for Euro 2020. I have  not passed police control. According to UEFA regulations, if at least  one of the host cities blocks me, I cannot work at the tournament.

Of course, I did not plan to visit Baku this summer anyway. They do  not expect me in Azerbaijan, they do not welcome me there - just as  they have not welcomed all Armenians for a long time. I am well aware  of the local Armenophobia. I come from Baku, my parents were born  there, my grandfather is buried there, and my whole family is from  there. We all had to leave there at the end of the 1980s.

So I had no illusions. I wanted to work in other cities. And the  block of Azerbaijan was generally expected.  I took it very calmly,  even with an ironic smile.

Now about the visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan and the  local football federation recalled to me. Yes, I really have been  there - and I speak about it openly. This is the homeland of my  ancestors, in particular my grandfather, whose name I bear. My roots  are there, and I am not ashamed of it. And this has never been a  problem for me.

The Karabakh conflict is a sore, very personal topic for me. I have  always been only for itspeaceful resolution. They send me my own  posts last autumn about the outbreak of war - but it's pointless to  find fault with them. I have always called on both sides for a  peaceful settlement, not for war. I only wanted the Karabakh conflict  to calm down, and the bloodshed to stop.

A new wave of aggression from Azerbaijan last autumn is a great  tragedy. Thousands of those killed on both sides, tens of thousands  of ruined destinies, the peaceful coexistence of Armenians and  Azerbaijanis that is still decades away - such wounds, unfortunately,  cannot be healed quickly.

I visited Karabakh only for peaceful purposes. So, I participated and  organized a children's football tournament there. I know that for 30  years the people of Nagorno-Karabakh have been living in a daily  sense of war. That tournament is perhaps one of the brightest events  for local children. I am proud of my involvement in it.

But I know people who bypassed the ban anyway - even after visiting  Karabakh. The point is definitely not only that I went there.

Official Azerbaijan, for several months after the war ended, every  now and then reports: we should live in peace. And at the same time,  it still holds more than two hundred Armenian prisoners of war,  despite all the agreements at the end of the war. And - this is a  trifle against the general background, but nevertheless - he acted so  petty in relation to a journalist from Russia, who, firstly, covers  football, and secondly, and did not plan to go to Baku.

My case shows that the authorities of Azerbaijan as a state (here it  is important to emphasize that I know many Azerbaijanis who  understand that it is impossible to live in hatred for each other any  longer) has zero tolerance for the Armenians of the whole world.  Okay, I will not give hundreds of examples when people with  twenty-five percent of Armenian blood, with a passport of another  country could not enter Azerbaijan just because of their surname.  They were simply not allowed to check in for the flight.

Euro 2020 and sports in general should bring peoples closer together  and make the world a friendlier one.  UEFA always speaks about its  values - respect for all people, regardless of nationality. The only  sad thing is that there are states that do not accept such values.

I am glad that the situation has been resolved. Once again, I am  grateful to everyone for support!  I am still convinced that  chauvinism towards any nationality, including Armenians or  Azerbaijanis, is unacceptable. I believe the world will change, and  someday the relationship between Armenians and Azerbaijanis will  change - I would like to see it with my own eyes. "