Why don't they participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games?, It is clearly the Asian Olympic Council | Hangzhou Asian Games. Asia | Asia
"Six Asian countries have announced that they will not participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games." - These days, such sensational statements can often be seen online. In fact, this is completely a partial understanding of Asian geography and sports knowledge.
Let's first clarify a concept: the Asian Games is a quadrennial sports event of the Asian family, but the participants of the Asian Games do not refer to geographically defined Asian countries, but must first be members of the Asian Olympic Council.
So, which Asian countries are not members of the Olympic Council of Asia? Why aren't they? This article is for everyone to clarify their doubts.
The Olympic Council of Asia is the organizational structure of the Asian Games and the plenipotentiary representative representing Asia and the International Olympic Committee. So far, the Olympic Council of Asia has a total of 45 members, belonging to the East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia regions, including 42 Asian countries and 3 regions of China. There are 6 countries in Asia that are not yet members of the Olympic Council of Asia, so they do not participate in the Asian Games.
The six countries are: Türkiye, Israel, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Cyprus. Geographically speaking, they are considered Asia, but do not belong to the five major blocks. From various reasons such as history, culture, and economy, most of them are more self identifying as European countries. Simply put, they do not belong to the Asian sports scene. Not only do they not participate in the Asian Games, but they also do not participate in any events organized by Asian individual sports organizations.
First, let's talk about Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Natural geography regards the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, and the Great Caucasus Mountains as the dividing lines between the Eurasian continent. To the south of the Caucasus Mountains lies Asia, and to the north lies Europe. Geographically speaking, these three Transcaucasian countries, with the vast majority of their territory located in Asia, never consider themselves Asian countries.
After the dissolution of the former Soviet Union in 1991, these three republics declared independence. Since the day of independence, it has regarded itself as a European country and fully integrated into the European system from politics to economy, including sports. In 1992 and 1994, the three countries successively joined UEFA. Although they are often beaten to death in Europe, which has the highest level of football in the world, and rarely have the chance to make a name for themselves, these three brothers are still considered to have some backbone: they would rather be queen cows than chicken heads, and they firmly give up their comfort zone and do not want to enter the much less competitive Asian football circle.
The sports of the three countries in the Caucasus actually have their own characteristics, as they are good at competitive combat events such as lifting, throwing, and softness, as well as producing talented individuals in intellectual events. Former world chess king Kasparov is from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan continues the glorious legacy of the Soviet era in the fields of gymnastics and artistic gymnastics, with stunning performances in international competitions. Georgia is rich in Hercules, and the World Hercules Championships always see the figure of Georgian heroes. The gold medal for men weighing over 109 kilograms at the Tokyo Olympics was snatched away by Georgian Tarahaze for his dominant performance. By the way, former AC Milan superstar Kaladze became the Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia after retiring from politics, while Armenian active star Mkhitarian, as fans familiar with the five major leagues know, has played for multiple top clubs. Many people only learned about Armenia through him, which can be considered a national business card.
Then look at Türkiye. Claiming to span across the Eurasian continent, only 3% of the country is actually located on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, while the other 97%, including the capital Ankara, is located on the Anatolian Peninsula. However, the history of Türkiye mainly takes place in Europe. This 3% of the land in Europe stands Constantinople, which was once the largest city in Europe, carrying the memory of Turkish pride in the Ottoman Empire. Türkiye is a country that is deeply involved in Asia and Europe, but it has not yet entered the EU since it applied to join the EU in 1987.
Cyprus is a small country with a population of 1.2 million, covering an area of less than 10000 square kilometers, which is roughly the same size as the three largest districts and counties in Hangzhou, Chun'an, Lin'an, and Jiande. From a geographical perspective, it is located near the eastern coast of the Mediterranean in Asia Minor, which is also considered an Asian country, but it firmly does not recognize the theory of geographical origin. Unlike Türkiye, Cyprus joined the European Union 20 years ago. Last year, its per capita GDP reached 26000 euros, which has already entered the ranks of developed countries. Because the land area is too small, there are only roads and no railways, but there are many beaches, making it a paradise for Europeans to vacation.
The commonality among the above 5 countries is that they inherently believe their bloodline is in Europe, possibly only Israel, and do not reject themselves as Asian countries. Israel has actively participated in 5 Asian Games since its founding in 1948. But since the 1974 Tehran Asian Games, due to well-known reasons, Israel has been isolated and subsequently absent from all subsequent Asian sports events. Israeli football is not too weak, but many people may not know that from 1978 to 1990, the Israeli team has been in a drifting mode, participating in the qualifiers as the East Asian wildcard team, the European team, and the Oceania team, with long-term "temporary household registration", which is quite unfortunate. Until now, it is still excluded from the Asian sports event system.
If we understand the basic situation of these six countries, the claim of "announcing not to participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games" is self-evident. Five out of six countries have never participated in an Asian competition and are not eligible to participate. Why announce this? Isn't it just a matter of combing your hair in front of an inkstone - without a trace?
As for the previously rumored rejection of the Asian Games by Australia and New Zealand, the actual situation is that the Hangzhou Asian Games were originally scheduled to take place in September 2022, and the two countries were invited to participate in some events. However, due to a conflict with another major event, the Commonwealth Games, which will take place in Birmingham, UK, in August 2022. As one of the most important members of the Commonwealth, Australia and New Zealand are unlikely to participate in two major events in the short term. So they pushed out the Asian Games last year.
Some people wonder why countries that are not in Asia are invited by the Asian Olympic Council to participate in the Asian Games, and countries located in Asia are not part of the Asian sports family. In fact, the territory of international sports has long been unrestricted by geographical concepts. Last year's Qatar World Cup, the host country participated in the European qualifiers without scoring, allowing strong teams such as Portugal and Serbia to accompany them in training. Even the earliest Copa America football match, Japan and Qatar were invited to authentic South American football parties respectively.
Australia and New Zealand have long joined the Asian camp in the three major football fields. Behind this series of operations, there may be reasons for each, but it is not difficult to understand. Sports, as an important part of social life and a global common language, sometimes have remarkable effects in attracting attention, promoting national exchanges and cooperation, and driving regional economy. So, breaking geographical restrictions and thinking patterns is not a big deal.
However, sports cannot be completely detached from politics, and various historical contradictions and entanglements run through the development process of the Olympics and Asian Games. In this sense, it is not surprising that whoever is rumored to participate in or absent from the Hangzhou Asian Games will only be a part of sports history.
