PARIS - Pat Hickey, the president of the European Olympic Committees (EOC), told AFP that the presence of Azerbaijan's bitter enemies Armenia at the inaugural European Games next month demonstrates how sport can give a lead to politicians.
However, the Irishman said there are also limits and while he has raised the thorny issue of Azerbaijan's poor human rights record with the government he added the EOC had no right to interfere in a sovereign state's affairs.
Hickey, who was the driving force behind the European Games and will see his brainchild become reality at the June 12 opening ceremony, says the fact he managed, aided by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, to persuade the Armenians to compete in Baku was a considerable diplomatic feat.
The two Caucasus countries have been locked in conflict since a bloody war in the early 1990s following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenian separatists seized control of Karabakh during the conflict that left some 30,000 dead.
Despite years of negotiations, the two countries have not signed a final peace deal following a shaky 1994 truce, and clashes have intensified over the past year along the Karabakh frontline.
The predominantly Armenian-populated region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
"Lots of people like to focus on the negatives, but for me there is a huge positive," Hickey told AFP by phone from Dublin.
"We have done a remarkable thing in getting Armenia to agree to compete and Azerbaijan to welcoming them to the Games.
"I flew to Yerevan last year and was very ably assisted by Thomas Bach in persuading them to come.
"It is living proof that sport is ahead of the politicians in areas such as that.
"I was paid a huge compliment for achieving this the other day by a female MEP (Member of the European Parliament) who said she had tried over the past two years to get representatives from both countries to meet together in her office and they won't even do that.
"For Armenia to be at the Games is a great win-win for sport."
Hickey, a member of the elite Executive Board of the IOC for the past three years, has been criticised -- he was the unlikely target of a recent New York Times editiorial -- for having allowed the Games be hosted by Azerbaijan.
"We do what we can behind the scenes," said the Irishman.
"But at the end of the day we are a sporting body and we haven't the right to interfere with a sovereign state's affairs.
"We have met with a Human Rights Watch (HRW) delegation that visited us in Dublin and we went in front of the European Parliament in Brussels last week.
"We listen very carefully."
Hickey is confident that unlike in Azerbaijan the continent's top class swimmers and track and field athletes will compete in the 2019 edition of the European Games.
However, he is delighted with the competition that lies ahead which incorporates the European Judo Championships -- where French legend Teddy Riner will be the headline attraction -- and in the boxing where Irish Olympic star Katie Taylor is competing.
"Originally it was meant to be an experimental Games with just 10 sports, but it has ballooned into 20 and 12 of them are qualifiers in one way or another for the 2016 Olympics.
"Thus we have gone from an experimental Games to a fully-fledged one."
Hickey, a former Irish international judoka, turns 70 during the Games which he says is purely coincidental.
"The European Games is considered as my baby and it makes me rightly proud that they are becoming reality. Due to no express planning my 70th birthday comes during them (June 17)!
"So it will be a double cause for celebration."
AFP
