In a recent statement, the Football Federation of Armenia addressed concerns regarding Turkish workers at Yerevan’s Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, affirming their status as part of UEFA’s broadcast crew responsible for their selection.
The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) has clarified that Turkish personnel working at Yerevan’s Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium are part of UEFA’s broadcast crew, with the European governing body responsible for their selection. This statement comes in response to criticism from rapper and public figure Davit Aghajanyan, who expressed disapproval of the Turkish workers’ presence in a video, stating they were laying electrical cables at the stadium.
The stadium is named after Vazgen Sargsyan, Armenia’s first defense minister and later prime minister, who is regarded as a national hero for his role in establishing the country’s armed forces during the first Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war. Aghajanyan’s comments seem to invoke Sargsyan’s military legacy, particularly given Turkey’s historical support for Azerbaijan, which has included the closure of its border with Armenia since 1993.
The FFA emphasized that Turkish specialists have been part of UEFA’s broadcast crews for years, stating that UEFA assigns personnel from various nationalities and that the FFA plays no role in their selection process. The federation noted that this centralized broadcast arrangement has been in place for over a decade, with the same crew covering matches for Armenia’s national team and Ararat-Armenia’s European fixtures.