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Armenian Athletes Receive Poor Welcome In Turkey

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  • Armenian Athletes Receive Poor Welcome In Turkey

    ARMENIAN ATHLETES RECEIVE POOR WELCOME IN TURKEY

    Armenian Weekly
    Aug 2, 2011

    TRABZON, Turkey (A.W.)-The European Youth Olympics Festival opened
    in Trabzon, Turkey on July 24, with 3,000 athletes joining from all
    over Europe, including Armenia. Some 49 countries are represented at
    the event, but not all received the same welcome.

    Young athletes from Armenia and Israel were booed by local spectators.

    At the wake of the deadly events in Norway, the crowd held a moment
    of silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack of June 22.

    However, what one Turkish journalist noted was the hatred in the air
    towards the Armenian and Israeli athletes.

    "Yes, there was a moment of silence for those murdered in Norway
    and all other victims of terrorism," wrote Murat Yetkin, a Hurriyet
    columnist, "but the young athletes from Armenia and Israel were booed
    by local spectators because of the political and cultural atmosphere."

    "Yet, due to the decades-long cultural pollution as a result of
    indoctrination going back to the years of the collapse of the Ottoman
    Empire, the traces of the atmosphere of hatred is still around,"
    he added.

    Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was among the 30,000
    spectators.

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