Mikael Mikaelian competed in the annual Tour de Ski event that took place from December 28 to January 4. Like other participants, he was handed a race bib bearing the word “Azerbaijan” in line with a sponsorship deal signed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) with the Azerbaijani government last year. He covered the inscription with a white tape and was fined by the organizers as a result.
“They said, ‘We understand you, but according to the FIS rules, all sponsors must be visible,’” Mikaelian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last week.
“For me, my dignity, my homeland are more important … I cannot think that this is unrelated to politics and enter the competition without covering the name of a country that is aggressively disposed towards my homeland,” said the 26-year-old athlete.
Mikaelian received an outpouring of support on social media and the full backing of the Armenian Ski Federation. Its chairman, Gagik Sargsian, said the federation is ready to pay the fine as are many Armenians.
Sargsian announced at the same time that it is planning to challenge the financial penalty in an international sporting arbitration body or even the European Court of Human Rights. He said the FIS should not have forced skiers to promote Azerbaijan in the first place.
“There is no international sports federation in the world sponsored by a state agency,” argued Sargsian. “There is simply no such precedent because [athletes representing] that state would have an advantage over the others.”
The Azerbaijani government’s tourism agency, which signed the five-year sponsorship deal, lodged a formal complaint with the FIS earlier this week. It said the international federation must make sure that all skiers avoid “manifestations of ethnic hatred, racism and xenophobia.”
The Armenian government also seemed unhappy with Mikaelian’s behavior.
“Sport should be about sport, and it is important that we follow all the rules of fair, honest sport as much as possible when competing on sport arenas,” its minister of education, culture and sports, Zhanna Andreasian, said on January 7.
One of Andreasian’s deputies, Hasmik Avagian, sent a letter to Sargsian demanding an “explanation” for Mikaelian’s refusal to display the word Azerbaijan on his chest. The skier’s action is “more than clear” and “needs no explanation,” the Armenian Ski Federation chief wrote in a terse reply.
Critics of the Armenian government link its stance on the Tour de Ski incident with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s reluctance to anger Azerbaijan as part of his broader appeasement policy towards Armenia’s arch-foe.
