I was shocked to hear that the Men’s Yerevan basketball team got kicked out of the comp for fighting against the Cairo team.
They even used chairs! one guy from Egypt had to go to hospital due to head injuries (Read below for a detailed account)
Being a men’s basketball referee for a couple of years now and refereeing at State level in Australia at the moment, I think its the whole ‘ego’ thing that gets in the way of a good competitive basketball game. Also, the fact that these are not professional sports players and most try to compensate by acting tough and macho for the audience (or maybe they all have small chongols) get over it and play the game guys, you are being laughed at when an something like this happens, its not tough and especially not good sportsmanship… if they cant play, they want to be remembered and talked about in some way so fighting is the next best thing I guess.
Today’s basketball match between ethnic Armenians from Glendale and Istanbul was tense, there was no doubt about it. You could feel it in the air. However, I don’t think anybody expected the teams to come to blows and for the police to have to enter the court to separate the two sides. The incident which lasted for about 15 minutes certainly took me by surprise.
Reliable information as to what started the clash is lacking, unfortunately, but the Istanbul team says that a player from the Glendale team called one of them a “dirty Turkish dog.” As some of you might be aware, some Armenians discriminate against or feel animosity towards those still living in Turkey. This dislike even extended to Turkish Armenians such as Hrant Dink.
The Glendale team, however, says that the Istanbul Armenians started the fight by lashing out without provocation at one of their players. When asked if nothing was said referring to them coming from Turkey, one player from Glendale denied that he or any of his teammates said anything that could have been considered provocative or racist. “They’re half-Armenian, after all,” he said. “They have some Armenian blood in them.”
Sorry, half-Armenian? Actually, most if not all are as pure blooded Armenian as any of the Glendale team regardless of where they live. Hard to say for sure who is telling the truth, but I did hear one of the Glendale players say to a spectator in the audience, “They don’t understand. They’re from Turkey.”
However, I have no idea in what context this was said. Even so, illustrating the kind of prejudice Armenians from Turkey have to contend with from their ethnic counterparts in other countries, when told about this story later in the evening, a Yerevan taxi driver responded by saying that “they’re not real Armenians.” Interestingly, the same attitude exists against other Armenian communities elsewhere.
Anyway, whatever the reason for the fight — and however they are viewed in Armenia and the Diaspora — Istanbul can perhaps take solace in the fact that today’s was not the only outbreak of violence on the basketball court. In the following match, Zarchka at Life Around Me reports that another fight broke out between ethnic Armenians from Cairo and a local team from Yerevan.
I had left by this time, but it’s interesting to note that with very little media coverage of the games so far, it is bloggers who are once again reporting such incidents.
[…] everything seemed to be calm when they started. However, on the tenth minute, at score 18:18 I hardly managed to look to the left when the playground was already crowded with people beating each other, throwing chairs, cursing and hitting with every possible stuff. It took an instant, really. Such a huge mess!
What caused this? A Yerevan player noticed that Cahier was playing roughly. A Cahier player pushed the Yerevan player, another player saw this and pushed the one who pushed his friend. That’s it. And it took an instant for everyone to jump to the playing area and start beating each other. Someone hit the Yerevan coach, the latter bumped another one. A Cahier player got a serious bump on his head, and it was blooding. Well, you must already guess the continuation…
The police interfered, though they were not able to disperse the mess. They were still shouting and cursing. The organizers tried to find some solution to stop this. Someone suggested to apologize to each other and go on. A woman next to me from Cahier started shouting at the coach and organizers: “Shame, shame on you, we are guests, how can you?” Actually I didn’t get it, if they are guests so they are privileged to play roughly?? And they did play roughly, managing to gain several falls by the 10th minute.
The Cahier team packed their things and left the building, saying that they wouldn’t step in anymore. The guy’s head was bandaged and he was taken by the ambulance.
For some reason I did not wander and didn’t shake my head. I witnessed such cases during previous games as well, and every time the diasporan participants would leave with disappointment. Guess they have some higher expectation, which are never met.
Well, even though I can’t comment about the second incident because I wasn’t there it’s ironic that the Pan-Armenian Games were meant to bring Armenians together rather than drive them apart. So much for Menk Hye Enk, perhaps, although at the very least I suppose such clashes, and the definite prejudice that exists against Turkish Armenians, at least exposes a problem that really needs to be resolved.
The Istanbul Armenians, for example, allege that the referee of their game even discriminated against them in his decisions. Of course, it should also be pointed out that Istanbul lost to Glendale 65-74 and that there were no other incidents after the police stepped in. Well, there were no other incidents in this game at least.
taken from: http://oneworld.blogsome.com/2007/08/20/fights-mar-pan-armenian-games-day-2/
The Wandering Passport 