“Before voting at the FIDE congress, it was stated that the executive committee had decided to grant the right to hold the 2016 World Chess Olympiad to Azerbaijan. Certainly, I opposed to that a few times at the congress meeting making our counterarguments, but at least 120-130 out of 160 member states of FIDE don’t have the faintest idea about the conflict between our neighboring country and us and they don’t understand what an enmity this is between the bordering countries, which is not resolved. These countries look at the FIDE leadership whom they trust and vote how they have decided.
“According to the rules of procedure, one cannot make political speeches at the FIDE congresses. Admittedly, there were political overtones in my speech, but hours would have been needed to explain to these countries what is what and it is not clear whether they would have understood or not,” Vanik Zakaryan, the honorary president of the Armenian Chess Federation, said to www.aravot.am.
Ashot HAKOBYAN
