Azerbaijan

Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, is a city which does not sound very attractive at first (it is not listed among the top places to see, yet is a candidate), but it has overshadowed many European cities with its transformation over the last five years.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev stated on Sunday that the country will rely on Azerbaijan for achieving a greater diversification of its energy supplies.

Plevneliev said this after meeting his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku following the end of the men's volleyball final between Bulgaria and Germany.

Bulgaria's men's national volleyball team beat Turkey 3:1 (24:26, 25:19, 25:17, 25:20) in a quarterfinal of the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Bulgaria beat Turkey in front of an audience of some 2500 spectators at the Crystal Hall arena in Baku, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

Bulgaria will play Poland in the final on Friday.

The Turkish national women's volleyball team claimed its third victory in a row at the European Games in Baku on June 19, by defeating Romania in a Group A game.

Turkey saw off Romania in straight sets, 25-16, 25-22 and 25-19, in one hour and 23 minutes at Crystal Hall.

Azerbaijan is currently hosting around 6,000 athletes from 50 countries for the first European Games, a new sports event modeled after the Olympic Games. The games kicked off in Baku on June 12 and will continue until June 28, amid criticisms ranging from the cost of the games to human rights violations by the Azeri administration.

The decision of the Romanian Prime Minister to attend the opening of the first European Games in Baku on Friday was slammed by many in Romania, including the country's President.

Most leaders of EU countries have boycotted the opening of the games out of concern for Azerbaijan's human rights record.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was one of the few EU leaders to attend the official opening ceremony of the First European Games in Azerbaijan on Friday.

Most EU leaders decided to boycott the opening in Baku due to the poor human rights record of the country, which has been accused of gross violations.

The first European Games opened June 12 in Azerbaijan's capital Baku with an extravagant opening ceremony featuring Lady Gaga.
                   

The first ever edition of the European Olympic Games began on Friday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, with the participation of about 6,000 athletes, including 147 Romanians. The event, featuring 20 sports, will end on June 28.

Azerbaijan has given the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe one month to halt its operations in the former Soviet republic, months before a parliamentary election this autumn, the OSCE said on June 9.