YEREVAN, JULY 6, ARMENPRESS. According to azerbaijanologist Sarkis Asatryan, the 8-10 billion dollars spent on European Games in Baku for increasing Azerbaijan’s reputation did not yield the results desired by the Azerbaijani authorities. As Armenpress informs, he mentioned, “The European mass media criticized the Azerbaijani authorities because even during the days of the European Games they did not stop repressions towards dissidents of their administration.” Asatryan also added that judging by the Azerbaijani users’ posts in the social media; they were mainly dissatisfied with the idea of holding the European Games in Azerbaijan as they thought that the immense sums of money could be applied for solving numerous social problems in the country.   

The world media continues to criticize Ilham Aliyev for spending 10 billion dollars on the European Games for increasing own reputation. The foreign media outlets point out that the European Games were a PR disaster for Azerbaijan.