Armenia’s government has signaled disapproval of an Armenian cross-country skier’s refusal to advertise Azerbaijan during a ski race in Italy—an extraordinary stance given the plain reality that it is insane to demand an Armenian athlete wear the name of a state that carried out mass ethnic cleansing against Armenians barely two years ago.
Mikael Mikaelyan competed in the annual Tour de Ski event held from December 28 to January 4. Like other participants, he was issued a race bib bearing the word “Azerbaijan,” reflecting a sponsorship deal signed last year between the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and the Azerbaijani government. Mikaelyan covered the inscription with white tape and was fined by race organizers.
“For me, my dignity, my homeland are more important,” the 26-year-old athlete said. “I cannot enter the competition without covering the name of a country that is aggressively disposed toward my homeland.”
He received broad support on social media and full backing from the Armenian Ski Federation. Its chairman, Gagik Sargsyan, said the federation is ready to pay the fine and that many Armenians have also offered to cover it.
Sargsyan also said he plans to challenge the penalty through an international sports arbitration body and possibly the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the FIS had no business forcing skiers to promote Azerbaijan in the first place.
“There is no international sports federation in the world sponsored by a state agency,” Sargsyan said. “There is simply no such precedent because [athletes representing] that state would have an advantage over the others.”
The Azerbaijani government’s tourism agency, which signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the FIS, filed a formal complaint with the federation earlier this week. It demanded that the FIS ensure all skiers avoid “manifestations of ethnic hatred, racism and xenophobia.”
The Armenian government, however, also appeared unhappy with Mikaelyan’s decision.
“Sport should be about sport, and it is important that we follow all the rules of fair, honest sport as much as possible when competing on sport arenas,” Armenia’s education, culture, and sports minister, Zhanna Andreasyan, said on January 7.
One of Andreasyan’s deputies, Hasmik Avagyan, sent a letter to Sargsyan demanding an “explanation” for Mikaelyan’s refusal to display the word Azerbaijan on his chest. The skier’s action is self-evident and requires no explanation, the federation chief responded tersely.
Critics of the Armenian government link its reaction to the incident with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s broader policy of avoiding confrontation with Azerbaijan. They argue that demanding “apolitical” obedience from an Armenian athlete in this context amounts to enforcing public submission: it turns sport into a billboard for a state that recently drove Armenians from their homes at gunpoint, and it asks the victim to wear the perpetrator’s name as a condition of competing.
