Baku, Azerbaijan, June 15
By Jamilya Aliyeva - Trend:
Holding the European Games is a good moment for sport development of the country, all types of sport, deputy head of media of DOSB German Olympic Sport Confederation Michael Schirp told Trend June 15.
"Baku is one of the most fast developing cities I have ever seen, you get the impression that this is the city where all the country is on the run, moving forward," he said.
He said that he was watching the Olympic Games and he told his team that the European Games in Baku meet all the standards of those games.
He went on to add that he was surprised with Lady Gaga's performance at the opening ceremony of the Games. "We have many people from Turkey, and for us it was very impressive to see how close your relations with Turkey are, because the Turkish team was cheered almost as enthusiastic as the Azerbaijani team."
Schirp said that he is very interested in history and sees how difficult the situation of the country is, because Azerbaijan has been between the strong powers of Russia in the North and Iran in the South for several hundred years.
Commenting on the negative information about Azerbaijan in some Western media, he said that it is wrong to use sports for resolving situations that diplomacy or policy cannot resolve.
The European Games kicked off in Baku June 12 and will last till June 28.
There is 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.
Edited by CN