Armenian Athletes to Compete in Azerbaijan for the First Time Since 2015

The Armenian national team’s participation in the 2026 World U17 Wrestling Championships in Baku will mark the first appearance by Armenian athletes at a competition in Azerbaijan since 2015.

The last Armenian delegation to visit Baku took part in the inaugural European Games, held in the summer of 2015. Armenia was represented by 25 athletes competing in five sports: boxing, judo, sambo, taekwondo and wrestling.

The Armenian team’s only medal was won by Greco-Roman wrestler Mihran Harutyunyan. He defeated Azerbaijan’s Hasan Aliyev in the semifinal before losing to Russia’s Artem Surkov in the decisive bout and taking the silver medal.

After losing the final 0–2, Harutyunyan expressed his disagreement with the officiating and argued with the referees for an extended period. He later said that he had been mentally prepared to compete in Baku.

“When Armenian athletes are competing, spectators in the arena shout and whistle, but I have no negative feelings toward them. Not everyone thinks the same way, and there are people here who treat us well,” Harutyunyan said.

Three other Armenian wrestlers—Maksim Manukyan, Roman Amoyan and Levan Berianidze—reached the bronze-medal bouts but were unable to make it onto the podium. Manukyan also defeated an Azerbaijani athlete during the tournament, while Amoyan lost to an Azerbaijani representative in the third-place bout.

Before the European Games, the Armenian national team had competed in Baku at the 2007 World Wrestling Championships. Armenia’s only medal at that tournament was won by Yuri Patrikeyev, who claimed bronze.

Arsen Julfalakyan, who competed at the 2007 World Championships, later said that preparing for the tournament in such an environment had been difficult. According to him, the security of the Armenian delegation was ensured, but it was difficult to speak of equal conditions.

“No matter how many times they said that the conditions would be equal, saying it is one thing and what happens in practice is another. This is not simply what I think—I saw it in 2007. I saw everything, beginning with our reception, when we were welcomed in secret and a Turkish flag was placed on our bus, supposedly to prevent any attacks on it, and ending with the way we were taken to a hotel surrounded within a radius of two or three kilometres, with no vehicle allowed to approach it. The entire coastline was cordoned off by the police, and a fully armed soldier was stationed every 15 metres. When I asked why the soldiers were there, I was told that it was to prevent an attack from the sea. Just imagine—that means there was a danger. And in such an atmosphere, to prepare and focus on winning… How sporting is that, and how far removed is it from politics?” Julfalakyan said.

Thus, the Armenian national team’s trip to the World U17 Wrestling Championships in Baku will be the first visit by athletes from Armenia to a competition in Azerbaijan in 11 years.