Ali Nihat Yazici, the President of the Turkish Chess Federation, sent a letter to Chessdom.com this afternoon presenting his point of view.
Official Answer of Turkish Chess Federation
I have read the NYT report saying that we got 2012 World Chess Olympiad by paying bribes to delegates, according to our own auditing reports. This claim is factually untrue. The Turkish Chess Federation spent around 178,000 Turkish Lira for the 2012 Olympiad Campaign in 2008 – which is not a very large sum when you are bidding for an Olympiad. The money was spent mainly for for our delegation’s travel and stay in Dresden, setting up and maintaining a stand in Dresden, the “Turkish Night” party, as well as gifts and souvenirs promoting the city of Istanbul. The Campaign was very successful: I would like to remind readers that the Turkish Federation beat the rival bid from Montenegro by 45 votes: 90 for Istanbul versus 45 for Budva.
All of the expenses incurred by the TCF in the Olympiad Campaign are documented by invoices from third parties, such as airline companies, hotels, catering companies and Dresden 2008 (for the stand). None of the invoices involve delegates to the FIDE Congress, no money was given to a FIDE delegate, and none of their expenses were reimbursed.
The reality behind this news that is currently being circulated is that there is a very destructive opposition to my Presidency of the TCF, which I have faced in the last six years. They have failed to win democratic elections and are now trying to take down my management by other means. They want to create an international scandal before the Financial General Assembly of Turkish Chess Federation, which is scheduled for next Saturday (November 27th). The timing of the news push by our opposition is very interesting: just 72 hours before the Financial General Assembly and in a US newspaper. Clearly the aim is to have the report of our auditing committee rejected and to force extraordinary elections to the TCF in three months.
I would like to stress: the Turkish Chess Federation has never paid a penny to any delegates to get their votes. If that were not the case, today I would be the President of European Chess Union. We are sure that more than 150 delegates of Turkish Chess Federation General Assembly will express their confidence in our management and support the work we have done over the last ten years to turn chess from a minor hobby into a major sporting activity in Turkey.
It is worth mentioning that the Financial General Assembly will be broadcast live on Turkish Chess TV on 27th Saturday 2010 at 14:00h CET. Everyone can watch the proceedings.
Ali Nihat Yazici
President of the Turkish Chess Federation
The NY Times chess column under Dylan McClain is as credible as the National Enquirer. Bring back Robert Byrne or bring in someone else. This column is now become a left wing radical political chess column with the agenda of destroying good chess people.
Why 2 years later? Why now? Aren’t there more chess news worthy stories than this trashy unsubstantiated garbage?
paying bribes is the norm in FIDE, I think we are all well aware of this by now.
Another interesting reported story at the Olympiad (in New in Chess mag) was one delegate had to go home for his safety after collecting brides from both sides! the
By the way my aim in life is to become a FIDE Delegate to collect the many gifts 😉
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