Not just a football game

Source: https://www.arsenal.com/arsenal/players/henrikh-mkhitaryan

All eyes were on Henrikh Mkhitaryan over the last few days for his decision to refuse playing in the Europa League Final with his team the Arsenal against Chelsea in Baku, Azerbaijan. Several videos and quotes circulated across social media and news articles displaying the Azerbaijani Sports Minister Azad Rahimov promising Mkhitaryan's safety and offering fighter jets or journalists who took the opportunity to discuss Azerbaijan's human rights record. And somewhere in between, questioning Mkhitaryan's intent and claiming this as a political stunt. Whatever the case may be, the fact of the matter is what we are seeing here is more than just a football game - its a historical and political issue that needs to re-center the pink elephant in the room - we need to begin to have difficult conversations across borders.

Now that the game is over - Chelsea won 4-1 - Arsenal and Chelsea athletes and fans will go back to their status quo along with the rest of the world, as the pink elephant is still sitting in the corner. Therefore, perhaps we might start by asking: how can we re-think relations between Armenian, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh? Recently Prime Minister Pashinyan commented on the communication styles across social media and called upon the youth to engage in more fruitful discussions instead.  Countless of innocent lives and many displaced refugees later, and still, we don't want to approach the elephant. In the past, those who approached the elephant paid for it with their lives - forcing many to leave their homeland or others risking their careers/futures. Still, we - on all sides of the border - continue to teach and pass on these messages of hate and fear to the younger generations.

I know you're probably wondering: what would a conversation sound like with an elephant? According to Hausheer (2012), elephants produce "low-frequency vibrations just like infrasounds" or, as quoted by Stoeger, "an elephant communication specialist at the University of Vienna and lead researcher, says, 'Elephants vocalize using the same physical principles as we do, but their immense larynx produces very low notes' that the human ear can’t detect" (National Audubon Society, 2012). If elephants style of communication is close to humans, then perhaps we can look to their example to improve our style of communication - among Armenians and Azerbaijanis - where many individuals continue to produce those 'low notes' and are outnumbered or silenced by nationalistic rhetoric.

As Chelsea fans are off celebrating their victory, perhaps we can begin to (re)think approaching the elephant and start those difficult conversations across borders.