© Dirk-Jan Visser
Noorderlicht Photogallery Akerkhof 12 9711 JB Groningen Pays-Bas
Le photographe Dirk-Jan Visser témoigne de la tragédie humaine à travers son exposition "Football in exil".
Le "FK Qarabag Agdam" et le "FK Karabakh Stepanakert", deux clubs de football du Caucase, sont le reflet direct du conflit environnant entre l'Arménie et l'Azerbaïdjan, qui se dispute les frontières entre les deux pays.
Photographer Dirk-Jan Visser reveals the human tragedy of a country torn apart by war from the perspective of two football teams. The two teams FK Qarabag Agdam and FK Karabakh Stepanakert symbolize the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus. With the aid of Armenia, in 1994 the region broke away from Azerbaijan, but to date is not recognized as an independent state by any country. For three years Dirk-Jan Visser and writer Arthur Huizinga followed six people who are central to the exhibition and accompanying photo book. Their lives are exemplary for the daily lives of players and coaches, fighters and refugees, wives and widows.
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© Dirk-Jan Visser
FK Qarabag Agdam
FK Qarabag Agdam is an Azerbaijani football club currently based in the Azeri capital Baku, yet longing to return to its home ground in Agdam in Nagorno-Karabakh. During the war with Armenian separatists over Nagorno Karabakh, the Imaret stadium in downtown Agdam remained packed for home matches. In 1993, Karabakh-Armenian forces occupied and destroyed Agdam and it has been a ghost town ever since. The club has become the symbol of hope and pride for over half a million Azerbaijani refugees scattered around Azerbaijan. In part thanks to the aid of a Turkish-Azerbaijani sponsor, the club survived in exile and now plays in the top division of Azerbaijani professional football. In 2009 the team turned in its best performance ever in European football, before finally being eliminated in the play-offs of the Europa League by the Dutch FC Twente.
© Dirk-Jan Visser
FK Karabakh Stepanakert
The Armenian football team FK Karabakh Stepanakert from Nagorno-Karabakh, meanwhile, is banned from professional football. Due to the lack of international recognition for the breakaway Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, football association FIFA does not recognise teams from the region. As a result, FK Karabakh Stepanakert has been isolated entirely. The club still exists in name only, borne by a team of schoolboys; a catastrophe for the team that was amongst the strongest in the Azerbaijani zone of Soviet Union football. FK Karabakh Stepanakert counterbalances the story of the Azeri FK Qarabag Agdam.
© Dirk-Jan Visser
Armed Peace
The geopolitical conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh region in the South Caucasus is a forgotten one. Even as the war raged between 1991-1994, it received little attention from the West. Today, the unresolved yet frozen conflict remains a reality for up to 600,000 Azerbaijani refugees as well as some 20,000 Armenians. The ‘armed peace’ in Nagorno Karabakh is the greatest threat to stability in this part of the world and potentially beyond, especially now economic interests and disparities in the region have increased tremendously in recent years.
Vignette : © Dirk-Jan Visser