The Baku pogrom began on 12 January 1990, when a nationalist rally in Azerbaijan’s capital quickly turned ugly, and huge crowds took to the streets in search of the city’s dwindling but significant Armenian population. By this point, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been at war for two years, a period that had seen mass expulsions and unspeakable atrocities on both sides. Most of the 250,000 Armenians living in Baku at the start of the war had already fled, but around 50,000 remained, and encouraged by a rising tide of anti-Armenian sentiment within the city, these were the ones now being hunted down.

Over the next few days, no Armenian in Baku was safe. The mob was brutal but well-organised, carrying lists of names and addresses, moving methodically from street to street. The elderly were dragged from their homes and beaten. Many were burned alive. Reports of rape and mutilation were commonplace. An Azerbaijani soldier later described seeing a naked woman being thrown to her death from the window of her flat. Another eyewitness describes a man literally being ripped to shreds in the street, and his remains thrown into a bin.

Nobody really knows how many Armenians were murdered that week. Those who survived wasted no time in getting out. Today the Armenian population of Baku is estimated at around 100, almost all of whom are either of mixed heritage or have married into Azerbaijani families. And it is neither to take sides, nor to parse or flatten the history of an exceptionally complex and intractable conflict, to suggest that when Henrikh Mkhitaryan says he doesn’t feel safe travelling to Baku for Wednesday’s Europa League final, he probably knows what he’s talking about.

As Arsenal take on Chelsea for the right to be knocked out in next season’s Champions League group stage, Mkhitaryan will be at home. Despite assurances from Uefa and the Azerbaijani authorities, he decided in consultation with his family that he would not be safe, particularly on the pitch. “It’s the kind of game that doesn’t come along very often for us players,” he said. “I must admit, it hurts me a lot to miss it.” The club have demanded a meeting with Uefa over what they have described as an “unacceptable” situation.

Mkhitaryan was less than a year old when the Baku pogrom occurred. By then, his family had moved from Yerevan to Valence in south-east France to escape the violence. But for any Armenian growing up in the foothills of a bloody war, the traumatic collective memory of events like the Baku pogrom, and a similar slaughter in the eastern town of Sumgait a couple of years earlier, would have been passed down like an heirloom.

Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Show all 32 1 /32 Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Arsenal: Stay or go? LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 05: Arsenal players look dejected following a draw in the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium on May 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) Clive Mason Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Bernd Leno - Stay After a steady integration and a few early errors, the German has settled in well as Arsenal's No 1 keeper, playing exceptionally against Leicester last week and more than justifying his £25m price tag. Action Plus via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Petr Cech - Retired The 36-year-old will hang up his gloves at the end of the season. Arsenal are keen to keep him on in a coaching capacity, however, Cech may prefer a return to former club Chelsea. PA Stay or go: Arsenal's squad David Ospina - Keep Napoli have an option to buy, however, the Colombian would prove a perfect, and most importantly free, back-up if the Italians do not take up that offer at a time when Arsenal need to focus on investing in other positions. REUTERS Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Emiliano Martinez - Sell The Argentinian has impressed at Reading on loan. But at 26, he's unlikely to ever establish himself as first-choice at Arsenal and the player is keen to move on and gain first-team football. Action Plus via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Laurent Koscielny - Keep A leadership figure at the club with one-year remaining on his contract, the Frenchman is certainly worth keeping on for a final season, despite becoming increasingly injury prone. AFP/Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Sokratis - Keep Adapted well in his first season and also has genuine leadership qualities in the dressing-room. One of Arsenal's more reliable options in defence this season and a worthy back-up at the least. Action Images via Reuters Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Rob Holding - Keep Flourished under Unai Emery before his season was derailed by an ACL injury. Should establish himself as first-choice next season. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Shkodran Mustafi - Sell A liability who Arsenal will be desperately regretting not offloading to Inter Milan when they had the chance. Unreliable and error-prone, Emery does not rely on the German in a back-four and the club will be keen to move him on, even if his value has dipped dramatically. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Konstantinos Mavropanos - Keep Has been given precious little game time, despite high hopes around the Greek defender. Needs to be given more minutes next season unless Arsenal would consider a loan deal. AFP/Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Calum Chambers - Sell Utlimately ended up playing as a central midfielder for Fulham this season and, while showing signs of improvment, does not have the quality to re-establish himself at Arsenal. Chambers is only 24 and should command a reasonable transfer fee from a side towards the other end of the Premier League table. REUTERS Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Hector Bellerin - Keep Another long-term injury absentee this season. Arsenal's best defender on his day and one they will certainly look to keep hold of. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Nacho Monreal - Keep The under-celebrated cog in Arsenal's maligned defence. Monreal can play both as a left-back in a 4-4-2 and as a wing-back or left-sided centre-half when Emery opts for five-at-the-back. Valuable versatility and experience that's worth holding onto as a back-up for the final year of his contract. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Sead Kolasinac - Replace for the right price Cannot be relied upon in a four-at-the-back formation. Frequently fails to track his marker and is lost for pace against skilfull wingers, despite often being brilliant going forwards. Very effective as a wing-back but Arsenal need a first-choice left-back who can be trusted to help sure up a leaky defence. Action Plus via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Ainsley Maitland-Niles - Keep More often used as a right-back, despite favouring a midfield role. Maitland-Niles has improved but is yet to totally convince. At 21, time is still on his side and he clearly has the potential, but he needs to find another level over the course of the next season. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Stephan Lichtsteiner - Release Has hardly impressed when filling in and at 35 is well off the pace of the Premier League. Contract expires at the end of the season and is almost certain to depart. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Carl Jenkinson - Release A cult favourite at the Emirates but a player who has never lived up to expectation. Will depart when his contract expires this summer. Getty Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Granit Xhaka - Keep Can be a frustrating anchor in Arsenal's midfield with errant passing and reckless tackling. Ideally Arsenal would replace the Swiss international, but with a replacement for Ramsey already required it's unlikely Xhaka can be afforded to leave. AFP/Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Lucas Torreira - Keep The Uruguayan fell out of favour with Emery during the latter part of the season, despite immediately impressing. Still needs time to adapt to the pace of the Premier League but the 23-year-old continues to look brilliant value at just £25m. Action Plus via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Matteo Guendouzi- Keep The 19-year-old has been one of the shining lights of this first campaign under Emery, with huge potential and a fearless personality. Can steadily be refined into a first-team starter for years to come if continues to improve and irons out youthful flaws. Action Images via Reuters Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Mohamed Elneny - Sell Only used as a last-ditch option by Emery and does not have the technical quality to effectively fill in for those ahead of him. Arsenal should be able to recoup the £5m transfer fee paid for the Egyptian in 2016. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Aaron Ramsey - Joining Juventus Arsenal will need to replace Ramsey with a midfielder of similar ilk. The decision not to extend his contract has become increasingly mindless during the second-half of the season in which he has been Arsenal's best player. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Denis Suarez - Return to Barcelona Who? Barely featured since Arsenal desperately pursued a loan deal for the 25-year-old in January. The decision to sign Suarez, over younger players with more potential, also contributed to Sven Mislintat's shock departure. One to forget. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Alex Iwobi - Sell for the right price Showed early improvements under Emery but it's still hard to say Iwobi has proved he has the quality to stand against the Premier League's top wingers, with a lacking final ball and paltry goal tally. There's no need to actively look to move Iwobi onwards, but if the right offer came in Arsenal should consider their options. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Mesut Ozil - Intends to stay Arsenal should look to free up their wage budget and sell Ozil, despite a recent upturn in form after a season of quarrels with Emery. There was already an openness to offload Ozil in the January window, but the creative enigma has now claimed he intends to stay and there's little Arsenal can do to force him out. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Henrikh Mkhitaryan - Sell Has never managed to consistently impress at Arsenal and his £180,000-per-week wages are a hindrance on the club. Arsenal should definitely look to move the Armenian on. The 30-year-old iis another one though who may be happy to sit tight. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Reiss Nelson - Keep Started brilliantly at Hoffenheim before falling out of favour and then losing his space in the squad for disciplinary reasons. Has great potential and should hope to break through at Arsenal next season. DFL via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Emile Smith Rowe - Keep Made an impressive breakthrough before struggling with injury before Christmas, which has since prevented him from getting game time on loan at RB Leipzig. Clearly Arsenal's best young prospect with clear potential and, despite Leipzig's interest in another loan deal, Arsenal should look to keep him at the club next season. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Alexandre Lacazette - Keep Arsenal's player of the year this season. Build-up play, ability to hold up the ball, added robustness and willingness to drop deep behind Aubameyang has turned him into an ideal striker in Emery's set-up. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang - Keep Twenty goals in the Premier League this season, despite being guilty of occasionally missing key opportunities. Has developed a great relationship with Lacazette. Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Danny Welbeck - Released Arsenal confirmed Welbeck's contract won't be extended after the draw with Brighton. Arsenal FC via Getty Images Stay or go: Arsenal's squad Eddie Nketiah - Loan Needs more time on the pitch to develop. Almost joined Augsburg in the January window and should look to improve on loan with options currently so limited behind Lacazette and Aubameyang. Arsenal FC via Getty Images

The two countries remain technically at war, and while the violence may have died down, the virulence is as strong as ever. According to a 2012 opinion poll, 91 per cent of Azerbaijanis perceive Armenia as their “biggest enemy”. Those of Armenian descent – even if they are not Armenian citizens – are routinely denied entry to the country. “Armenia is not even a colony, it is not even worthy of being a servant,” an Azerbaijani called Ilham Aliyev tweeted in early 2015, which would have been alarming enough even if you didn’t know he was the country’s president.

Perhaps it’s not beyond the bounds of reason, then, that when Azerbaijan issued an open invitation to traipse the streets where his fellow Armenians were murdered just a generation ago, Mkhitaryan was prepared to err on the side of caution. It is, said Mkhitaryan’s former manager Arsene Wenger, “something that should not happen within football. I feel it’s not normal that in 2019 – inside Europe, with very sophisticated democracies – that you cannot play for political reasons.”

Wenger’s not often wrong, but he was here. It has become extremely normal for politics to get in the way of sporting competition, whether it is Xherdan Shaqiri being left out of Liverpool’s trip to Red Star Belgrade because of his Kosovar-Albanian heritage, or Spain and Gibraltar being forcibly separated in the qualifying draws for major tournaments, or India and Pakistan not playing a bilateral cricket series for seven years. And yet the idea that sport is somehow “above politics”, or should be separate from the swirling and dangerous currents surrounding it, remains a surprisingly tenuous one.

This, certainly, has been the Azerbaijani line. “We at all times put the sport as something very separate from these political issues, and of course the same issue is again with Mkhitaryan,” said the country’s minister of sport. On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Azerbaijani ambassador to the UK, Tahir Taghizade, appeared on the respected international news network Talksport to face questions from those two noted experts in the field of Caucasus politics, Jim White and Simon Jordan.

“There is absolutely no problem for Azerbaijan to receive Mkhitaryan,” Taghizade told the audience. “His physical safety is assured by every word I say.” He pointed out that four years ago a team of 25 Armenian athletes had visited Baku for the European Games and not been physically harmed, although he neglected to mention that they were viciously booed by the home crowd whenever they appeared. Unsurprisingly, he did not mention the pogroms, or the Armenians being burned alive in the street. It wasn’t the time for that.

Arsenal will be without Mkhitaryan in Baku (Action Images via Reuters)

Still, it seemed to be good enough for White and Jordan. “It’s about character, it’s about substance,” said the former Crystal Palace chairman, comparing Mkhitaryan’s pathetic, snowflakey withdrawal to Denis Bergkamp’s refusal to fly to European away trips. “If the security services can provide the inspiration, then what are we talking about?”

There are still regular exchanges of gunfire between the two countries’ troops. There are certain areas along the border that remain thick with landmines. But in one sense, the battle has already been won and lost. Azerbaijan are the ones with the vast oil reserves, and over the last two decades have been developing the political clout to match. Uefa’s decision to award Baku the Europa League final, despite anything remotely resembling a suitable transport or tourism infrastructure, is simply the latest example of how a little gushing black gold will grease open even the sturdiest of locked doors.

Next week’s Europa League final will be played without Mkhitaryan (Getty) (Getty Images)

As well as the Europa League final, Baku has a Formula One grand prix and next summer will host four matches at Euro 2020. The biggest sporting event that Armenia has hosted to date, meanwhile, has probably been the 2010 Greco-Roman Wrestling World Cup. Now, its country’s most famous athlete is being denied the chance to play one of the biggest games of his life.

The point is this: anyone telling you to “leave politics out of sport” is probably already winning the politics.