Baku, Azerbaijan, June 12
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan has organized a touching and very impressive opening for the first-ever European Games, Marek Calka, the ambassador of Poland in Azerbaijan, told Trend on June 12.
"Finally, Europe has its own Games, and Azerbaijan has organized them," said the diplomat.
"Ancient Greeks, during the games, hid swords, bringing discusses," he said. "Pierre de Coubertin, who in 1896 revived the Olympic Games, was guided by these ideals. Europe should be guided by these ideals against modern threats."
The diplomat admitted that he doesn't know much about sports.
"However, among my colleagues in Poland's embassy in Azerbaijan, there are a few real fans. These Games are for them and for athletes, but not for officials and politicians," he added.
The European Games in Baku involve a lot of Polish athletes - more than 220 people.
Marek Calka said the embassy will today, on June 13, organize a Polish evening at Baku's Philharmonic Hall.
"We have excellent musicians from Poland, the Warsaw fashion will be presented by attractive fashion models from Azerbaijan, there will be two exhibitions of photos of the buildings constructed by Polish architects in Baku, and the modern architecture of our country," said the ambassador.
"There will be also our Polish food and drinks," Calka added.
"Azerbaijan's Embassy in Warsaw presented your country three weeks ago at the Olympic Picnic in Warsaw. Today, we will try to present Poland in Baku in the best way," said the ambassador.
Baku 2015 is the first-ever European Games, an exciting and innovative multi-sport event for the continent underway June 12-28.
There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition.
Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.