This idea was expressed by Tigran Chobanyan, the president of the Armenian Wushu Federation, during a press conference today. He also informed the journalists that the relations between the European and Armenian Federations had deteriorated because of the deliberate fraud against Armenia at the 2010 and 2012 European Championships.
“This story started in 2010 when the US Congress recognized the Armenian Genocide,” Tigran Chobanyan said. “The news reached Turkey when we were crossing that country’s border heading for the European Championship. Once we reached the destination, we felt on our own skin that everything was done at the state level, in order that our flag was not raised and our anthem was not played in Turkey. And the tool in this whole story was Alexander Raduntsev, the chief referee of the championship who was an ambitious, unfair and revengeful person residing in Kazakhstan, but for some reason being a member of the German Federation. He did whatever he could, in order that representatives of Armenia were not among the referees, although Raymond Smith, the president of the European Wushu Federation (EWuF), had personally invited our referees. Consequently, we had serious problems with obviously biased refereeing. Our federation filed a complaint regarding one fight and the referee and technical committees satisfied our complaint finding the Armenian fighter the winner. However, at the meeting, Peter Warr, the chairman of the technical committee, literally asked the people present, ‘But the opponent is a Turk, is it OK?’
“Anyway, the decision was already made, but we found out later that grossly violating the rules, they had maintained the former decision in our absence. The Armenian Federation stated that if the justice was not restored, our national team would boycott the opening ceremony to take place on the same day. They convinced us at the time that the decision of the referee and technical committees was illegal and they would necessarily change it. Raymond Smith, in turn, expressed discontent that there had been no such gross violation in the history of the European Federation and that it was a disgrace. However, as it turned out later, he was lying to us too.
Read also
“The very same thing happened this March at the European Championship in Tallinn, after which the Armenian Federation made a demand to dismiss Alexander Raduntsev from the office of the chief referee and in case of not satisfying the demand, the Armenian national team would refuse to participate in the European Championships as long as that person was the chief referee. That letter-demand was sent also to the other national federations. Almost all teams complained about Radutsev’s activities in Tallinn. Belgian Patrick Copenhaut, the senior secretary of the EWuF, members of the EWuF executive committee, Petru Grindeanu (Romania) and Henk Verschuur (Holland), promised that we would not be alone in this struggle… they also lied to us.
“And the worst thing is that after all this, instead of punishing that Alexander Raduntsev, the EWuF imposed a punishment on the Armenian Federation forbidding us to participate in the European Championships until 2014. Admittedly, they mentioned in their response to our official letter that they had ostensibly imposed sanctions on Raduntsev too, but there is nothing said about the sanctions, what kind of sanctions they are. And I allow myself not to believe. The response reads that the European Federation forbids us to participate in the championships under its aegis, whereas, as I have already said, we boycotted the European Championship, in the first place.”
Ashot HAKOBYAN
