The European Games débuted on June 12 with a razzle-dazzle in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, and over 6,000 athletes having a bed-and- breakfast on the government’s tab.
But, as with many other things, the Azerbaijani government has its rules about what exactly constitutes the right breakfast.
During their time in Baku, the European sports community and those individuals staying at certain hotels may find it hard to avoid having a kookoo egg, a traditional omelet, every morning.
Before the Games, officials “trademarked” a so-called “Azerbaijan Breakfast” and requested all major hotels to start serving it. Earlier this week, tourism officials presented the rights-protected breakfast to managers of high-end hotels in Baku and said they’ve came up with an unspecified quality-inspection system.
The morning meal includes a cheese platter, jam, honey, tea and, of course, the kookoo eggs. And it is free for visiting athletes and sports officials.
But some foreign visitors, including a sports-reporter for the UK’s Guardian newspaper, are not going to be there to try it.* The authorities denied The Guardian accreditation for the Games after it published a critical piece on preparations for the event.
It deported a British rights-activist at about the same time
Other critics also will miss the chance for some famed Azerbaijani tea. International corruption watchdog Amnesty International has been barred from entering the country. A representative of Human Rights Watch was thrown out in March.
With pro-democracy advocates long squeezed out of the country and many domestic critics tucked away in prisons, the Games opened in the most repressive environment since Soviet times, Human Rights Watch claimed.
State-sponsored pomp is plainly intended to impress and fill any awkward silence, however.
The event also could serve as a prime potential product-placement opportunity for Azerbaijani businesses reputed to be tied to the ruling elite, which number among the Games’ official partners and “supporters.”
Supermarket-chain Bazar Store, part of Azersun Holding, which allegedly shares a tie with First Daughters Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, will be selling Games merchandise. As another official supporter, Azersun, mostly focused on food production, will be serving up its Azerchay tea.
It is not known if there is a link between such government-friendly food companies and the recent move with the Azerbaijan Breakfast.
One person who could investigate such connections, star investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, has been in prison for six months now for charges widely condemned as trumped-up.**
From prison, she appealed on June 12 to the international community in a letter to The New York Times to use the Games as an opportunity to stand up for freedom in Azerbaijan. Dinara Yunus, daughter of prominent rights defender Leyla Yunus and analyst Arif Yunusov, also asked for help to free her parents and scores of other activists from jails.
For now, the European Olympics Committee appears reluctant to take its host publicly to task for these problems, however. A senior Azerbaijani official has categorically denied that the country contains any political prisoners. The government maintains that all the negative coverage is part of an international smear campaign.
Something, perhaps, to debate over the kookoo.
*EurasiaNet.org is part of a content-partnership program with The Guardian.
**Khadija Ismayilova has worked as a freelance reporter for EurasiaNet.org.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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