LONDON—SkyNews has reported that Azeri officials are scalping tickets intended for use by Azeri officials at the London Olympic Games.
SkyNews cameras captured a man, who claimed to be working for the ministry of Azerbaijan sold a ticket stamped “complimentary” to a SkyNews undercover reporter.
The tickets, which had “Azerbaijan Olympic Committee” printed on front, were for a boxing match scheduled for August 3 and were being sold for 20 pound ($31). Accodring to SkyNews, the seller did not speak English, but a friend translating for him claimed that they have sold several tickets, which he alleged were given to them by the Azerbaijani ministry.
“There is no way these tickets are forged. If you see anybody with (an) Azerbaijan flag, go to them because probably they will have spare tickets as well,” the man told the SkyNews reporter.
“Those people work in the ministry of Azerbaijan and the ministry gave them these tickets to come here and support their teams. But these people don’t give a f***. They’re just selling and making money, simple as that,” the man continued.
It is illegal to re-sell venue tickets. Tougher legislation was introduced in 2006 for the Olympics to impeded scalpers.
Anyone convicted of scalping or selling tickets now faces a fine of 20,000 pounds and a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
London’s Metropolitan Police have arrested 29 people since the start of the Games for re-selling Olympic tickets.
Meanwhile, on the first day of the London Olympic Games Armenian judoist Hovhannes Davtyan defeated Azerbaijan’s Ilgar Mushkiyev in the men’s Judo 60 kg.
Hovhannes Davtyan was born on November 25, 1985. He got involved in Judo at the age of 12. Hovhanes in Europe’s vice champion (2007,2011), winner of World Super Cup, bronze medalist of 2009 World championships.
Aaah,having billions` worth of oil is not enough for the humble good old azeris and they need to supplement their meagre income by selling tickets.Well,they should have introduced talking turkey,running away from armenians and hanky panky in the turkish bath as new fangled olympic sports to win some titles without having to pay good money to buy bulgarian athletes to do the job for them.
Who cares..! This news has no social value.
Try to write about issues that concerns Armenians. For example, thousands of Syrian Armenian stuck in the middle of war and many of them trying to depart to Armenia and don’t have the money to do it.
Stupid Story
We should not be engaged in knocking down Azeris. We should be engaged in lifting ourselves up and beyond.
the same people who would be jumping with joy every time Asbarez reports a minor transgression by RoA officials, are now apparently squeamish when an Azeri rat is caught in the act.
It is Information warfare: get used to it. It’s a dirty business.
Read Azeri websites sometimes: it is filled with Anti-Armenian disinformation and false accusations.
Asbarez is reporting a transgression by an Azerbaijan Government Official to show the depths of corruption and depravity the Aliyev Sultanate has descended to .
The same Government that claims Armenia is, quote, “Western Azerbaijan”.
The same Government that claims it has the right to shoot down passenger airplanes that would fly between Yerevan and Stepanakert: yeah, passenger airplanes.
Get off your false high horse and join the battle.
If you don’t want to join – get out of the way.
I’m sorry but printing stories like these are childish. So a few Azeris are scalping tickets. With all the corruption and scalping of the country going on in Armenia, these could easily have been Armenians.
The best part of this story is that Hovhannes is on top of Mushkiyev,where Armenians always should be.
Now this is something to report about:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2012/08/olympic-fix-the-case-of-the-azeri-boxer.html
This could be a jumping off point on how Azerbaijan is using corruption in other international organizations to get their way.