Flag-burning incident in Yerevan intentional, says official Azerbaijani weightlifting team returns home

The Azerbaijani national weightlifter team, which refused to participate in the European Weightlifting Championship in Armenia's capital Yerevan, has returned home.

Report informs that the plane with Azerbaijani weightlifters and federation representatives landed on April 15 at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku.

The Azerbaijani athletes withdrew from the European Championships following the burning of the Azerbaijani flag at the opening ceremony on April 14.

“The incident has shown that the Armenians still do not want peace. They feed hatred towards Azerbaijan,” Kanan Mastaliyev, head of the press service of the Azerbaijan Weightlifting Federation, said.

The spokesman noted that after the burning of the flag, it was decided to leave the country despite the requests by the authorities of Armenia and the European and International Weightlifting Federations to stay.

Mastaliyev added that the provocation was committed intentionally.

“At the time of the incident, the Internet was lost. The flag-burning episode was not broadcast live. We saw this on social media shortly after the incident,” he said.

According to Nazila Ismayilova, a member of the Azerbaijani weightlifting team, the Armenians committed the provocation because they were afraid that the team Azerbaijan would win medals:

“We are very disappointed because we were well prepared for the competition. We could have medals. I think in Armenia they could not allow the performance of the national anthem of Azerbaijan there for the second time. I am sure that we will show our strength by successfully performing at the next competitions,” she said.

“We went to Armenia as citizens of the victorious country. Our safety was not guaranteed. When I tried to leave the hotel in the evening, they said that they would not be able to ensure our safety. Thanks to the help of the head of our state and the first vice-president, we safely returned to our homeland,” Ismayilova concluded.