Baku, Azerbaijan, June 27
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Today Azerbaijan hosts the first European Games in history, Egemen Bagis, Turkish former minister for EU affairs, told Trend.
"I congratulate my Azerbaijani colleagues with this successful organization," he said. "Azerbaijan is part of Europe and we have to support and encourage them for their further integration into European values and standards with political pragmatism."
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 came to Baku to represent their nations over 17 days of competition. Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.
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