BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • Trending

The pitched battle over the European Games

  • Published
    11 June 2015
Share page
About sharing
Images such as these in protest of Azerbaijan's human rights record have been widely shared under the hashtag #Baku2015 - originally meant to promote the European GamesImage source, IFJ
Image caption,

Images such as these in protest of Azerbaijan's human rights record have been widely shared under the hashtag #Baku2015 - originally meant to promote the European Games

BBC Trending
What's popular and why

The European Games kicks off in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, on Friday. It's the first Olympic-style sporting festival for the continent - but a hashtag first used by organisers and originally meant to celebrate the games has been turned on its head by human rights campaigners.

#Baku2015, external has been tweeted nearly 100,000 times in the last month. It was initially used back in 2012 after the European Olympic Committees launched the new tournament and named Baku as the first host city.

But in recent days, amidst athlete interviews and pictures of Baku's new stadium, a significant number of the most repeated messages are from activists and groups such as Human Rights Watch, PEN and Amnesty International. They're using the tag to detail something very different: the arrests of journalists and the arbitrary detention of activists.

"Ask your leaders to take action to release political prisoners," tweeted the International Federation for Human Rights (known by its French acronym FIDH) along with pictures contrasting the shiny main stadium - named the Olympic Stadium - with a man apparently being led away by police:

Tweet of pictures from FIDHImage source, FIDH

Other hashtags including #EuropeanGames and #RealBaku have been tweeted thousands of times by activists, who have also shared cartoons and statistics about political prisoners and jailed journalists.

BBC Trending asked the Azeri government for comment on several accusations, including the widely retweeted complaint from Amnesty International that its monitors were not allowed in the country in advance of the start of the games. "It would be best this visit is postponed, not cancelled, to a later date after the European Games," according to a statement from the Azerbaijani embassy in London. In a separate statement Thursday morning, the embassy called the online campaigns a "well-organised attack" and "totally unacceptable."

"Fundamental rights including the freedom of press and freedom of expression are constitutional rights and guaranteed and protected by the relevant laws of Azerbaijan," the embassy maintained.

Online, government supporters seemed pretty vocal - and co-ordinated - in their attempts to wrest the hashtag back to a discussion about sport. At several points in the run-up to the games, pro-government messages hit Twitter from multiple accounts at roughly the same time:

Repetitive Tweets from supporters of Azeri governmentImage source, Leyla Najafova

And the official organising committee and government supporters also tweeted positive images of the Azerbaijani capital, for instance:

Tweet of Azeri European Games teamImage source, @asenaEfsane

Arzu Geybulla, an independent Azeri journalist based in Istanbul, says this pattern is consistent with the way politics works online in the country. The youth branch of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party deploys a number of young people online who call themselves journalists, she says - but actually spread party messages.

The New Azerbaijan Party has been in power for more than two decades - current president Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father in 2003. The government has been criticised by the EU, US, and rights organisations for detaining political prisoners, external, widespread corruption, external and election fraud, external. Human Rights Watch says Azerbaijan "is experiencing one of its worst human rights crises in over two decades since its independence" and that the government is in the midst of a "relentless and systematic crackdown" against its critics - a view supported by the UN, external.

In April, the European Olympic Committees said in a statement, external: "It is not the EOC's place to challenge or pass judgment on the legal or political processes of a sovereign nation and, like all sports organisations, we must operate within existing political contexts."

Reporting by Leyla Najafli

Blog by Mike Wendling, external

Next story: The things women don't talk about

Brazilian vlogger Julia TolezanoImage source, Julia Tolezano

From masturbation to abusive relationships, all over the world there are subjects that women consider too personal or embarrassing to talk about openly and honestly. But in Brazil, one internet video star is breaking all those taboos - and attracting a huge following for it. WATCH THE VIDEO

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, external, and find us on Facebook, external. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

Top stories

  • Live. 

    Ukraine will not give up land, Zelensky says as Trump plans to meet Putin

    • 15167 viewing15k viewing
  • Israel rejects international criticism of Gaza City takeover plan

    • Published
      10 hours ago
  • Israel's Gaza City plan means more misery for Palestinians and big risk for Netanyahu

    • Published
      17 hours ago

More to explore

  • Prince Andrew book seals his fate for any return

    Prince Andrew, head and shoulders, April 2025
  • 'JD Vance sends warning to UK' and 'Scam by me'

    A composite image of the front pages of the i Paper and the Sun on 9 August 2025
  • 'People are angry': Behind the wave of asylum hotel protests

    Protesters at Canary Wharf
  • Nasa Apollo missions: Stories of the last Moon men

    Harrison Schmitt is photographed next to the United States flag on the lunar surface during the Apollo 17 mission. The highest part of the flag appears to point toward our planet Earth in the distant background. Its red and white stripes are also reflected in the visor of Schmitt's helmet.
  • 'An escape from feeling lonely': The Seoul 'convenience stores' fighting isolation

    A lively and colorful pedestrian street in Seoul, filled with vibrant crosswalk designs, unique shops, and bustling activity. A woman stands in the middle of a zebra crossing in a winter jacket carrying the sign 'escape room, half price'
  • What we know about Israel's plan to take over Gaza City

    Palestinians hold out pots and bowls, jostling to reach the front of a line as they await meals distributed by aid groups in Gaza City
  • US shrugs off Gaza escalation - drifting further away from allies

    US President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives for a meeting at the West Wing of the White House
  • Big Mags: The paedophile-hunting granny who built a heroin empire

    Mags Haney outside her home in the Raploch talking to two police officers. The photo from the mid 1990s shows Haney with short bleached blond hair and big earrings. She is wearing a pink cardigan and and orange t-shirt. A number of locals are standing around watching the scene
  • Summer Essential: Your family’s guide to the summer, delivered to your inbox every Tuesday

    concentric circles ranging from orange to yellow to represent the sun, with a blue sky background
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    'JD Vance sends warning to UK' and 'Scam by me'

  2. 2

    'People are angry': Behind the wave of asylum hotel protests

  3. 3

    Prince Andrew book seals his fate for any return

  4. 4

    Elon Musk's AI accused of making explicit AI Taylor Swift videos

  5. 5

    Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine talks next week

  6. 6

    Faith, family and fish - the unlikely bond between JD Vance and David Lammy

  7. 7

    Jim Lovell, who guided Apollo 13 safely back to Earth, dies aged 97

  8. 8

    Police 'sat on information' before man, 80, killed

  9. 9

    US diplomat says UK would have lost WW2 with Starmer as leader

  10. 10

    Sturgeon memoir describes arrest as 'worst day of my life'

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • Your latest reality TV obsession has landed on iPlayer

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Destination X
  • Jacob Elordi stars in explosive war drama

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    The Narrow Road to the Deep North
  • Inside the front-line fight against cybercriminals

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Panorama: Fighting Cyber Criminals
  • A rare glimpse into the world of rope access

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Our Lives: High Stakes
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.